Just to get something out of the way first.

If there is any one aspect of being a parent we have been avidly preparing for for years, it's how to explain the concept of Santa Claus to our child. So that you won't be left out, here are some popular children's questions about the Claus and the answers.

~How can Santa visit everywhere in the world in one night?

Santa's sleigh contains an Improbability Drive. When in use, it is simultaneously everywhere in the entire universe at once due to a quirk of quantum physics theory that states that there is a very small chance of a subatomic particle being very far from the nucleus of an atom. All you have to do is create a field of infinite improbability and off you go. Fun fact: an unexpected mis-ignition of the Improbability Drive and its reality-warping effects turned the sleigh's engine into eight reindeer, and Santa liked them so much he never bothered to attempt to turn them back. They remain a living part of Santa's sleigh.

~How can Santa carry so many presents in one tiny sleigh?

Santa is a longtime ally of the Doctor, and has access to Time Lord technology including mastery of hammerspace. The sleigh is actually huge on the inside, and contains not only storage space for all the world's presents, but also living quarters for up to 30 passengers, stables for the reindeer, a 3-D printing lab for last-minute gifts due to sudden changes to naughty/nice status, a den with a fireplace, and a small home theatre.

~How can Santa fit down the chimney and what does he do when there isn't one?

Santa has access to Floo Powder, so he's not so much coming down your chimney as using it for a magical portal. Because of the nature of Floo Powder, Santa can also emerge from heating vents, gas valves, and since there's a connection between the teleportational ether and ionized gas, from plasma TVs. He tries not to do that one too much as some people find it a little creepy.

~How does Santa know if I've been good?

When a child turns five years old, parents are given access to a special Web site (Previously it was a mail-in form) where they can enter information regarding your behavior since last Christmas. We do it like we do taxes every year. Don't worry, children are graded on a curve and if for some reason a parent doesn't fill out the questionnaire, Santa errs on the side of presents.

Speaking of taxes, the Web site allows parents to opt out of Santa delivery so that Santa can spend more time, money and energy on people who can't afford or otherwise won't receive presents. That's why sometimes you catch your parents filling stockings. They're participating in the opt-out program to help the less fortunate. Parents get a tax credit for doing this, a provision set up by President Richard Nixon in gratitude after Santa Claus single-handedly stopped an invasion by S.P.I.D.E.R. in the late 1960s.

~How does Santa make all the presents?

Santa's elves are actually the last surviving members of the Middle Earth elves, and they bring both magic and craftsmanship to toy making in addition to Santa's own skills and genius. Many of the world's best gadgets, gizmos and playthings have actually been developed by Santa and the elves, and they are licensed through various companies to fund Christmas and promote innovation in the realm of whimsy. Santa Claus, Inc. is the largest patent-holder in the world.

Why does Santa live at the North Pole?

The North Pole is not under any particular country's territorial claims, and thus serves as the perfect neutral ground for Santa to conduct his operations free from war, economic shifts and other political factors. This holds true for his base on the Moon as well, though that site is still in the development phase as a back-up base should global warming render the Arctic too unstable.

~Why don't I always get the present I ask for?

Mrs. Claus is an accomplished scryer, which she learned directly from studies with Dr. John Dee. Her job at the North Pole is checking a small distance into the future to see whether or not the present you ask for causes any kind of trouble, and sends her recommendation on to her husband. This is why most kids don't get the pony or flamethrower that they ask for.

~Is Santa real?

Santa, like all gods, demigods, myths and extra-normal beings, operates on the Gaiman principle. They are defined by the perception of humans to their existence. In short, he is as real as the belief in him is real. At various times in history he has been either a fully corporeal entity capable of magic and wonder in our reality, at others he has merely been a small voice inside our heads urging us to generosity and love in the cold of winter. He has been a saint, a shaman, a god, a cultural icon and a corporate mascot. He is more or less all of these things at once.

You'll never find an element in the periodic table called "hope," or "love," or "charity." Yet those things are as real as hydrogen despite not being measured by any way known to science, and so is Santa Claus.

Hubris, Chris Watters. Hubris.

A bit of a one-sided conversation. THANKS, CHRIS.

I've been itching to get behind the microphone and do a podcast again for a long time now. I've been at GameSpot for a little over a year, and have been looking for the right opportunity to do something that will serve more of a purpose than just me wanting to scratch that particular, borderline-narcissistic itch. After all, we already have The HotSpot, which has been extremely popular for many years, and has recently been rebooted with Tom Magrino at the helm, so if we're going to do another one, it needs to be for the right reasons.

So...we're going to do a little experiment. We're going to test out a new show(let's call it a "pilot" just in case I completely mess this up and it doesn't work out the way we want it to)after Thanksgiving where the content is entirely dictated by you. You shape the conversation with your comments and questions, you define the content with well-articulated blog posts that we talk about on-air. We want this show to be a reflection and celebration of the GameSpot community. if the concept works, we'll expand upon it in future and see where it takes us. For now, I want to get the ball rolling here and see where it takes us. For this first one, I want to provide a completely open forum and throw some questions back to you guys.

- Do you want us to pick a theme and have you respond? Or do you guys want to throw suggestions at us?

- How do you want to make suggestions? Respond in the comments to a post? In the forums? On Twitter, Facebook, or Google+? All of the above?

- Do you want episodes to have lots of different smaller topics? Or do you want a single theme of discussion where we explore things in a deeper way?

- Do you want a short podcast that's 30 minutes or less? Or something longer?

- What should the show be called?

Regular readers (and viewers) of GameSpot will have noticed that we've been making a lot of changes lately. We've been tweaking the functionality of our pages, changing the design, and changing our approach to content. This is just the beginning of our metamorphosis, and hopefully you'll continue to notice a lot of things adapt and evolve in the coming months. Some things we'd like to see move more quickly than we're able to execute upon (there are lots of things that we want to do with the site itself, but they're epic, big, complicated engineering projects too difficult and technical for a content dork like me to explain) but believe us; we are paying very close attention to what you're saying in the forums, in your blog posts, and in the comments.

Recently we've also had some changes to our team. Friends and colleagues have moved on, and we're rebuilding our organization to best serve you. As part of that, I wanted to communicate some recent changes to so you know who's doing what around these parts.

The biggest recent move is that Justin Calvert is now Executive Editor (he previoulsy headed up reviews) and reports directly to me. He and Ryan MacDonald are now the two primary content leads and the two of them are helping me work on new ways to create cool content for you all, and I couldn't be happier. Both are awesome chaps, and I'm very pleased to have them as my right hand men. (Can you have multiple right hand men?)Over on the newsdesk, the excellent Brendan Sinclair has been promoted to senior editor in charge of news. Brendan has been a hugely important part of our news engine for a long while now, and this promotion is well-deserved for him.

I can't wait to see what these guys will do in the weeks and months ahead.

We'll have more news about changes between now and the end of the year, but for right now - please join me in congratulating these guys.

If there's content you'd like to see, or you'd like to share your thoughts on how you'd like to see our content evolve, please let me know in the comments, or head over the guys' pages (I've linked them above) and let them know too.

[Gold star to anyone who knows who said the quote I used as the title of this post]

The intense fall release season is currently operating at full tilt. Last week saw the release of Uncharted 3, and this coming week gamers will get the hugely hyped Modern Warfare 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Needless to say, it's a busy, exciting time. But I'd rather talk today about what we don't know. Here are my most anticipated unannounced games.

The Re-Birth of Tony Hawk.

Despite less-than-stellar critical reception and sales for the past two Tony Hawk games--Ride and Shred--Activision said in April of last year that Tony Hawk has the staying power of basketball phenom Michael Jordan. That statement, coupled with the Birdman's own admission that a new Tony Hawk game is "probably" happening in 2012, make a new game in the series all but a foregone conclusion.

Who will develop the new Tony Hawk game and how will it play? My crystal ball says Chicago-based Robodomo will handle development duties, and that Activision will bring something serious and compelling to the table. After two shortfalls, you've got to think some quality brainstorming sessions yielded positive results.

I won't say that this future Tony Hawk game should ditch the plastic skateboard altogether, only that I think it would be wise for Tony Hawk: Reborn (as I'll call it) to offer multiple controller input options. If the developer's fine tune the peripheral, and it works well with the game, that's fantastic. But if I want to play with a standard Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 controller, please allow me that, too.

In terms of gameplay, I'm hoping Tony Hawk: Reborn provides a massive, open-world with story and side-missions, just like the classic entries in the series. I really hope the zany, over-the-top, huge point multipliers return as well. Oh, and the soundtrack must be top-notch, and packed with not only classic rap, but punk, and hardcore. Could it be a Tony Hawk game without that?

Neversoft's Shooter.

Speaking of Tony Hawk...this one has puzzled and perplexed me for a while. Job listings at the Activision-owned studio stemming back over a year reveal that the studio is at work on a shooter with multiplayer to boot. The California-based studio, made famous for its work on the first (and best) Tony Hawk games, as well as the Guitar Hero franchise, is no stranger to the shooter genre. The studio created Xbox 360 launch title Gun in 2005, which was actually quite fun and exciting. But what is the studio up to now?

It's no secret Activision is in love with the Call of Duty franchise, tapping some five studios for simultaneous work on the shooter franchise: Beachhead (Elite), Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, and Raven Software. Could Neversoft be the latest? If so, could the studio be working on the Call of Duty MMO for Asia?

The job listings in question shed little light on the scenario, but hopeful Eddie wishes that Neversoft is at work on a new intellectual property. This could take any shape or form, because Neversoft's development history is hardly tied to any specific genre.

Bungie's Game with Activision.

I don't know how this happened, but somehow I'm writing only about Activision products. What does that say about me? Anyway. I think Bungie's new universe with Activision is by far the most compelling unannounced property out there right now. We've heard teases of MMO-esque qualities for the game, currently codenamed Tiger, but we have no solid ground to tread on.

It's reasonable to believe Bungie's new game will be a shooter, given the developer's lineage, but what will it look like? How will it play? If it is to be a shooter/MMO hybrid, just how will that work, in terms of gameplay and monetization? Will the masses of "Activision haters" re-pledge their allegiance once the Bungie game is revealed? These are all questions to which I have no answers.

Respawn-ing With Electronic Arts.

When Jason West and Vince Zampella were fired from Activision and formed their own outfit--Respawn Entertainment--the world knew it would hear more from the popular pair (and not just through the litigious imbroglio with their former employer). Now that the studio has inked a publishing deal with Electronic Arts, formed and populated a website, and offered a teasing image (below), it's time to speculate as to what the team is at work on. Like Bungie, some sort of shooter seems more than likely. But questions still abound: are the sci-fi rumors true? Will in-game jabs be made at Activision? Will the game receive critical and commercial reception anywhere near similar to that of the Call of Duty franchise? Given that the studio is still quite young, it's likely we won't hear much about their project for some time. Bummer.