I wrote about the peculiar comfort in being ill over at Thought Catalog, plus the uncommonly silent limbo of spending a holiday in New York City if you’re not particularly Christmas-oriented.

Okay, so one article about being sick, one article about a holiday, and here, one sort-of serious satire about my struggles to get my work done on time and well. Believe it or not, there were some people out there who thought this piece was real advice. I disclaim all liability for what will happen to you if you’re that oblique!

Right, but somehow I still did get some stuff done: An editorial on Skyrim. All right, trolls: I think Skyrim is completely rubbish. I have no interest in playing it any more. I have no idea who designed the combat system, looked at that swordplay and went “HEY IT WORKS IT’S PERFECT.” Like, really? The game also combines a lot of things I’m just not interested in: high fantasy setting, open world, and loads of lore.

However (who am I kidding, half of you will not read the ‘however’ and have already begun typing me nerd rage death threats) — HOWEVER, I totally get why people love it. Totally get it; I wrote a bit about that at Gamasutra.

People like feeling like they’re an influential part of something larger than themselves; they like games that give them things to explore and share together. That’s the principle with which Jesse Schell is working with his company’s new Puzzle Clubhouse, an intriguing new idea for crowdsourced game design. Check the interview.

And it wouldn’t be a new year at Gamasutra without our usual exhaustive year-end roundups; I contributed Top 5 Controversies a bit ago, and now I add Top 5 Surprises.

As usual we round up all our year-end material — including our overall top ten games — into one big feature for your reading pleasure. This year, our individual contributions to the game of the year list were bylined, so you’ll be able to see which titles I vouched the hardest for. Give it a read!

Lots of you have asked what I think of the big changes going down at Kotaku. I’ve worked with the staff there for some years, including both Brian and Joel, and I wish them tons of the best in their new endeavors, Brian in particular after years of service to — come on, face it — our space’s most relevant consumer gaming site.

But I’m also incredibly thrilled to see what Stephen and the new guard (including my real good bro Kirk Hamilton) will accomplish over at the big K. Stephen in particular is a fantastic editor who’s done a lot for me, and I think his role as Kotaku EIC spells amazing things.

For those that mailed/IMed/Tweeted whatever, as far as I know I’ll continue my monthly column as normal, as I’ve done for I think nearly three years now!

TIFF Nexus’ Women in Film, Games and New Media event was a huge success. The response to my keynote was overwhelmingly positive (I was TRENDING in Toronto on Twitter! Whoa!), and I hope to have some video or something online for you guys soon. If you’re an Edge subscriber, a column distilling some of the key points on which I spoke will appear in an upcoming issue. Meanwhile, at Gamasutra I wrote about the results of the Difference Engine Initiative, the local Hand Eye Society’s incubator which focuses on inviting and encouraging women to game development where they may not have considered it before. Amazing stuff I’d be pleased for you to check out.

As usual, I’ve been up to a whole bunch of other things; here’s an editorial I’ve done on signs of life in the maturing social games space. You can make fun of Facebook games all you want, but you can’t ignore them, because the lessons from the social space will start pollinating other platforms.

Across the Atlantic from me, veterans of the UK gaming space including Kuju’s Ian Baverstock and Jonathan Newth have formed a brand-new consultancy aimed at assisting game developers in navigating this rapidly-changing cross-platform environment. PopCap, which is unequivocally one of the coolest and smartest game companies there is, is ahead of the curve as it takes another step toward seamless multiplatform play for Bejeweled with an interesting new iOS decision. So yeah, get used to this stuff.

I’m excited that once again Gamasutra is doing its year-end top lists, counting down to our games of the year by rounding up the year’s most notable industry events; business trends, anticipated games of 2011, and top indie games of 2011.

I chip in with the year’s top five biggest controversies, as I’d know from controversy, natch. Our Mike Rose was kind enough to find a pic of Cole Phelps standing nonchalantly while destruction occurs behind his back. There’ll be more top lists, of course, so watch our space.

I wrote a tongue-in-cheek Thought Catalog piece about how Facebook is changing the way we talk about our romantic crush behavior. Sappy shit. I’m amazed at how many of the commenters are taking it seriously. Their relationships must be super unfun. Possibly they are replicants.

Is that it? Yeah, I think that’s it for now. Man, I hate this time of year. It puts all our brains through a pulper. Of course, Skyrim does that to me too, and yet it doesn’t seem to stop me playing it.

Oh yeah, I need to keep on top of recommending you guys music so that you stop asking me if I’ve ever heard of, I dunno, Wilco or something, and stop calling “indie” a genre. I’m just playin’, ladies, you know I love you. Besides, we’re all going to blow our brains out if we hear one more pop Christmas song cover right?

Today’s Good Song: The People’s Temple – Led as One (Si vis pacem, para bellum)