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Three things about 2012:

First, this year’s list has way more songs that got heavy airplay than any other list I’ve ever done. By airplay, I don’t just mean radio. I mean YouTube, Pandora, TV shows, commercials, you name it. It felt like the same 10 songs were absolutely everywhere this year. The very good news is that 5 or 6 of those songs were actually good. Can’t remember the last time that was the case (early 90’s?). The bad news is those songs got pummeled into the ground as if nothing else was being released. I tried to be as objective as possible, not penalizing a song for being overplayed while also not rewarding it for merely being stuck in my head from being on repeat.

** This article appears in the November issue of PLAYED, our monthly gaming newsletter. Download the entire issue here. **

If the gamers on your holiday shopping list are anything like us, chances are they’ve already bought every “most wanted” title on their lists (including Criterion’s ). But that doesn’t mean you need to resort to the giving of traditional gifts like socks, sweaters, or fruit cake. Thankfully for you (and your gamer) we’ve put together our annual gift guide for the gaming-inclined with ideas picked straight from our own 2012 holiday wishlists.

A bi-weekly recap of the topics that have us talking at Denuo, related to our industry, our group, and our everyday.

Despite how poorly our teams may have performed, we at Denuo have always thought that fantasy sports stand out as one of the best examples of utilizing game mechanics to drive consumer behavior…also known as gamification.

When you boil it down to the most basic level, fantasy sports leverage mundane statistics from the real world games to create consistent engagement with all potential sport fans. The mechanics operate in such a way that participants remain invested in the coverage of the games throughout the entire season no matter their team allegiance. The numbers suggest it is working given over 32 million players in the US and Canada (of interesting note 20% are women).

As with all good case studies, there are lessons that can be observed and hopefully applied by those of us looking to execute an experience with gamification. The following themes bubbled up once I stopped licking my wounds of once again underperforming in my own fantasy leagues.