I had the same idea. Great minds think alike. Maybe we could get one or two developers to jump on board and include the logo on their box. All we'd need is a press kit, some way to validate support, and then let them provide links back to the forum in their product documentation.
I was thinking about this idea the other day, and realized that few if any developers would feel obligated to implement widescreen support that met such stringent (though needed, admittedly) standards just to have a widescreen approved logo on its box. The market just isn't there right now, and I have a feeling that the need to mandate such widespread support for widescreen would have to come from the top down, as it did from Bill Gates for the xbox 360.
Even then however, Bill mandated widescreen support because that is where the future of television and home entertainment is headed, Microsoft made that decision at Bill's behest after some serious pre-release market research on the buying habits and makeup of its key consumer demographic.
Still, I can't count out the idea of a grassroots movement completely. Or even media pressure upping the anty. I suppose the simplest way to implement the latter idea would be to have already established periodicals like PC gamer add a 'widescreen' rubric to their grading criteria. The biggest obstacle to that would be deciding what constituted proper widescreen support, and who would get a say in deciding that.
Third party/end user grass-roots media (like our beloved WSGF :D) can exert more influence toward that end, but I imagine that it might have to take the next step and move toward print media rather than remaining an internet only source for the widescreen community. Lots of possibilities there. :wink:
edit/update
One other thing I thought i'd mention with regards to media. I was browsing a home theater enthusiast magazine's web site last week, and belatedly noticed that they had a section on gaming. Not huge mind you, but a nice crop of reviews for PC and console games as they relate to home theater gaming. Like widescreen pc monitor's, I think this is an emerging (though very small atm) enthusiast segment. Not too sure if it will ever branch out beyond that though, due to the technical learning curve for some, the lower resolutions that television's support and the inability of pc's to invade the living room (even with Viiv) but...hehe...I digress...anyway,
All of the reviews were played on big screen televisions, but I noticed that despite the focus of the website/magazine (i.e. widescreen televisions as a central part of the home theater experience) that most of the widescreen issues were only mentioned in passing. The reviewer would be like, "Well this particular game fills up the whole screen" while in another they'd say, "Well this particular game only plays at a 4:3 aspect ratio". Ok, all fine and good, but never once did they really say anything beyond "Wouldn't it be nice if this game supported widescreen television resolutions and aspect ratios". In other words, there was really no focus, constructive criticism of the lack of support, or admonishment (civilized admonishment, of course) to the developer to add widescreen support in. There was also no critique of the way the game handled widescreen (which I'm sure would drive Paddy and Cranky nuts ;)
One wonders if this is somewhat intentional on the part of the reviewers and publishers, but for now it does serve to point out how even mainstream media outlets are somewhat conservative when it comes to grading, evaluating and propagating the need for more widescreen support.
[second edit/update]
Something else came to mind to, with regards to mainstream media. I think it was only a year or two ago that the hardware editor at PC gamer was still hanging on to his recommendation of a CRT for his top of the line gaming machine. Just the other week, I was browsing through an issue at the local bookstore and read that the entire office uses 19" LCD monitor's at the PC gamer office for their gaming. That makes sense, as a 19" LCD is most likely going to provide you with the broadest compatability possibile and offer a good balance of resolution and size. They are quite aware however of widescreen LCD's but have yet to really come out and embrace them fully. Methinks their reasoning might be similar to that of the Home Theater Mag I mentioned above. I.e. the sense being that although things might be moving in that direction, widescreen gaming still remains an enthusiast market. So, in the meantime I think most publications are playing it safe during this era of transition and waiting to see how the market plays out. Its a conservative approach, but one I can definitely understand.
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