As a follow-up to the earlier post on entertainment advocacy and activism, consider this pledge offered by Joystiq, which young gamers can sign to show their parents that they won’t cross the line between fake and real violence. As one of the bloggers explains in the comments,

Keep in mind as you read this that it was created as a positive way to counter Jack Thompson. Instead of cursing the darkness, you can talk to someone you love who doesn’t understand games. It’s our own little counter-information campaign, and we’d love any feedback you can provide.

Part of the reason he’s explaining this, perhaps, is that Joystiq commenters can be critical of such an effort’s effectiveness. The negative attitude some gamers might have toward such campaigns may be why I haven’t seen much of a grassroots gamer movement to speak of yet. Comments on the previously-linked Game Politics article also indicate some sense of how gamers feel about such a movement:

Terminator44 Says:
“This is a very unprecedented move. Perhaps efforts to create a gamer grassroots movement are working after all.”

GameClucks Says:
“Still, good on them for the grassroots effort to make a better name for the gaming community. Also, I applaud them for their work in organizing competitive gaming tournaments, which is no simple task.”

Jonathan Brown Says:
“Can we take any grassroots effort seriously when its led by a man who legally changed his name to ‘Triforce’?”