In Defense of Square

by G. Carr 

Quite a few of the recent editorials have been either in reverential praise or bitter denunciation of SquareSoft and its production/release practices. Many of these people seem completely unbending on their opinions, which are often to the extreme. Allow me to propose the idea that all this controversy only goes to show exactly why Square is a completely successful company.

Let's look first at Mike Lenzo's editorial, "Gaming and Real life."

"...the more and more I learn about good writing and characterization, the less and less I think of Square's "masterpiece." I sincerely hope that Final Fantasy VIII has a different set of writers than those in FFVII. To leave so many characters undeveloped and create a generic, mediocre villain that is nothing more than some kind of faceless cypher is an insult to all the fans of Square."

"I have always maintained that the stockholders in Square should look very closely at it's release policies. I've never understood why a corporation would willingly throw away money, which is what Square has done many times in the past."

By the sound of these two assertions, and other such statements from Mr. Lenzo's editorial, Square should have been destitute years ago and its stockholders should be ashamed of themselves. So why is it then that Square, a company that throws away money and insults its fans, inexplicably continues to make lots and lots of money? Whatever Mr. Lenzo thinks of their policies, they're obviously doing something right.

On the other end of the spectrum is Michael Cooke's editorial, "Why We Love Final Fantasy VII." In it, Cooke describes at length the brilliant writing that went into the characters of FFVII. I tend to agree more with Cooke, because while he may have gotten a tad enthusiastic about how great the characters were, I think that this was one of the better games I've played, largely because of the characters. I certainly don't think it's the worthless, shallow, insulting gutter trash that Mr. Lenzo seems to think it is. But why did I bring it up, you might ask? The contrast between these two editorials proves an interesting if somewhat obvious point: no matter what Square does, there will always be some people who absolutely despise it, and others who love it. We saw the same conflict with other Final Fantasies, SaGa Frontier, and will, without doubt, see it with games to come. It's the same way with any product of any company.

A company tries various things and it gets various responses. That's just a fact of life. They tried something different with SaGa Frontier and there were those who hated it and those who loved it. Maybe the people who hated SF loved FFVII and vice versa. So what's the bottom line? If you hate a game, it's not because there's something wrong with the company that made it, unless everyone who ever plays it hates it for the same reason. There may not even be anything wrong with you. It's just that you and that game aren't compatible. So stop whining about the horrible company that made the disgusting, insulting game, and just stop playing it and go buy a game that you do like. Meanwhile, Square keeps making innovative games and trying different marketing strategies, and making millions doing it. If anything should be an indicator of whether it's a good company or not, the simple fact that it still exists and still rakes in money is clear enough to me.