Man, every year it seems like people get touchier and touchier about whether you say “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas.” What should be an innocent expression of happiness has devolved into verbal ammunition in an increasingly annoying culture war. I can’t wish someone well without worrying that I’m either: A) offending Christians, or B) offending everyone else. And of course, I just offended liberal Christians who prefer “happy holidays” …

Screw that. I’m officially renouncing the debate. I’d like to wish you all a “Wonderful Happy Fun Time” (trademark-pending), regardless of whichever religion you do (or do not) believe in. May the new year bring good health, success, peace, and joy to you all!

And farewell, 2006. You were a lovely year.

• A refresher from The Escapist on the cost/benefit of “boutique MMOGs”. Though by boutique, they really just mean “low budget.”
• Time Warner acquired a 10% stake in SCi Entertainment/Eidos, then inked a distribution deal with Codemasters. Oh big media, you do love your games.
• A Japanese economic website estimates that the Wii costs just $158 to produce. (I’m not aware of a fully-translated version of this article, sorry.)
• Burger King’s advergames have sold 2M copies. Given that they’re being sold for $4, that’s a pretty big win. Assuming a reasonable development cost, Burger King is advertising for free or even advertising at a profit.  :-)

Last week was an interesting one for enthusiasts of user-generated content.

“You” rock

Time Magazine named “you” (as in everyone) the person of the year. Not surprising, but notable in a “cultural signpost” kind of way. Do “you” feel good about yourself yet?

You rock (with a little help from Microsoft)

Microsoft officially launched XNA Studio Express and the Creators Club, then followed with a number of interviews that declared an unambiguous commitment to UGC. Just a few short years ago, most people in this industry thought that users were good for nothing more than their wallets (plus the occasional UG multiplayer map.) Now Microsoft is dedicating real resources to helping regular people make video games from scratch.

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You may have heard about a little windstorm that swept through the greater Seattle area last Thursday evening. It’s been all over the news, or so I’m told (news, and other modern commodities, were unavailable to me until about four hours ago.)

I had intended to spend the three-day weekend doing some writing, but instead I spent it re-learning how to build a fire out of wet wood. Which, unfortunately, I failed to do. I did find a novel use for those little glove/boot warmers you can buy at ski resorts — we used them as bed warmers.  :-)

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• Interesting interview of Elan Lee, VP of well-known ARG maker 42 Entertainment.
• Fox teams up with Multiverse to turn Firefly into an MMORPG.
• A player-created virtual sport (”Repel Ball”) has appeared in City of Villains. This kind of thing is a dream come true for developers — monthly subscription revenue from customers entertaining themselves.
• XNA Game Studio Express and the Creators Club have officially been launched.
• Raph says “there is no spoon” (when you’re talking about developer-created virtual items and property rights.)
• Some elegant holiday casual gaming (thanks Ben.)

Today my buddy Rhys called me out for criticizing Viva Piñata a couple weeks ago, then playing it for significantly more time than I initially intended. (I’d have kept my indulgence a secret, but the Live achievements system sold me out.) So I’ll admit it: I’ve played Viva more than any other 360 game I own. So sue me.

Many other people have written detailed descriptions of why they like this game, so I’ll pass. Instead, I’d like to focus on what I think the Viva Piñata franchise could become, and what that means for gaming in general. In short: I’d like to see Viva Piñata 2 (assuming it’s ever made) focus more on self-expression and social networking.

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• The Washington Post writes about Madden’s tremendous impact on the NFL and its fans. No longer surprising, but always fun to see a concrete example of the power of games in full effect. Relatedly, a very funny (but fake) letter from Madden’s lowest-rated NFL player is getting lots of attention. (warning: letter full of profanity)
• I forgot to mention earlier: Pogo has implemented a new virtual currency called “Gems”, which can be used to buy virtual items, etc. A development worth watching given Pogo’s large audience.
• Also in the “old news” category: most game magazines continue to tread water or lose subscribers, but Game Informer actually experienced a huge spike in subscribers thanks to GameStop promotions. It’s now a top-40 magazine in the US.
• For fellow bloggers: in a completely unscientific study, I correlated yesterday’s traffic spike (1100 more visitors than usual) with unique visits to my feed (50 more than usual). One could therefore surmise that approximately 4.5% of that traffic will potentially “stick” (not including repeat visitors who don’t use RSS readers). Again: totally unscientific — there’s a thousand things I can’t know that affect this number.

A question I’d like to pose: do you think a game with a serious theme (i.e. the Holocaust, or the African-American civil rights movement) could be commercially successful in the US market?

Such a game would almost certainly go a long way towards silencing skeptics who say “games can’t be art.” More importantly, it would help young people understand the great injustices of the past. Reading a textbook is one thing, playing a prisoner in a concentration camp is quite another.

But would these games reach enough people? Would they be profitable? And how would you make them fun without blurring the social message?

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• The IGDA Alternate Reality Games SIG has released its first whitepaper. And speaking of ARGs, it looks like Lost Planet will have one.
• The Harvard Business Review recently published an article of mine on the subject of reverse product placements (i.e. bringing fictional products into real-world marketplaces). I can’t reprint the article, but it basically fleshes out points that I’ve already raised here.
• Kaz Hirai was promoted to president of SCEI; Ken Kutaragi moves into the chairman role. The promotion is being interpreted by some as a shift away from hardware-centricity.
• Via Wonderland, survey finds 43% of US net-users felt “as strongly” about their web community as they did about their real-world friends.
• Pacific Crest Securities is getting a lot of attention, ever since their analyst declared EA’s brand “tarnished” due to consistently poor games. Citing GameRankings.com, he notes: “Reviews of all of EA’s annualized titles… have declined over the past two years.” Lower revenues are probably a better measure of brand damage; little sign of that as of today.