Regarding petitions, I certainly agree that a well run petition can often garner results, the trouble is finding one that is well run. The only ones I can recall involved hosting a webspace for people to reproduce emails that they sent on to the company in question. This has the doubled effect of bringing new people to the party with well reasoned, intelligent examples and also proving, within the limitations of the medium, that either a few very, very dedicated people were writing a lot of emails from different addresses, or there were a lot of complaints. It's great for PR too, as you can pick and choose the best material to put up front and/or sent out to news sites.

My basic point is that, from the corporate perspective, you have to figure that any raw list of names is probably at least 50% BS. I mean, why not make up names? Email addresses are free, website accounts are free, etc. One truly dedicated person could, in theory, account for dozens of new names every day.

A forum, by it's very nature, is more of a community. We have some knowledge of each other, and it would be very difficult to fake being a dozen different people on a forum. If a good number of people take the time to debate a game's flaws, and whether or not it's smart to continue buying from a particular developer, you can be reasonably sure that number of people actually exists and are dissatisfied with the product. If those people go on to send clear headed emails with their complaints, well, your average corporate lackey at least has something to show his boss, right?

One more thing, regarding moderation. IMHO we're guests here. We should behave like it. If you're uncomfortable with your host's requests there are plenty of other places to be a guest where you can do and say anything you want. Picking a fight with a moderator is a lot like charging the Mongol Horde with an exhausted unit of peasants.