I’m not much of a crusader. I’m too reasonable and pragmatic to carry grudges against Electronic Arts or Microsoft or Sony. I am a mature individual.

But when one of the good guys is about to get the raw end of a deal, I like to speak up. Even if he is a crusader.

Not that Gamerdad can’t speak up for himself. He’s a superhero, after all. Andrew Bub’s website has tried to serve as a lighthouse for confused parents for a few years now and he has attracted quite a bit of attention for evaluating games with a parental eye. His staff called Oblivion an adult theme game long before the ESRB caught on.

So what to make of Microsoft starting it’s own Gamerdad? Correction. Gamer Dad. See what they did there? Stuck a space between the words. Makes it look different.

Now it is entirely possible that Brian Johnson and Microsoft have never heard of the original Gamerdad. Or didn’t bother to do a trademark search and discover that the term legally belongs to Andrew Bub for all interactive entertainment purposes. The space doesn’t matter legally, as far as I know. The two phrases are similar enough and have the same purpose and could cause confusion. So, Bub wins.

None of this takes away from Johnson’s committment to an admirable goal. The world is big enough for a lot of parents to care about the role of games in a family. He and Bub have similar motivations and they are not enemies in the big picture.

But Bub is a small time operator who thought of the name first. He’s an add-on character in a superhero videogame. He is the original Gamerdad. There won’t be another.

Do the right thing, Microsoft. Change Johnson’s column to something else.

Spread the word.