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Ah, Instagram. The perfect app? It checks all the boxes of success: explosive growth out of the gate with near universal praise plus a quick acquisition for a ridiculous sticker price. And, it’s still growing.

What makes Instagram, Instagram? Why was this the app that turned us all into photographers and not Hipstamatic or another of the countless filter apps that came onto the scene at the same time? Why did Instagram’s now cliche aesthetic (heavy filters + square photos) catch on?

** 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.

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.

Hopefully we caught you before we all head out to feast on some deliciousness and spend some much-needed time with friends and family. Though the holiday cheer is coming on full-force, we haven’t forgotten the task at hand by giving you the latest and greatest in gaming.

We start the holidays off right with a gaming gift guide…though not which videogames we need to play, but instead, gadgets and gizmos that make our holiday wish list. But we didn’t just make a list to send our friends and family (ahem), we also dive into the paradigm of mobile apps and games – how long does it take for you to realize you have games that you’ve played a whole 2-3 times before you’ve moved on? We feel you.

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As a late bloomer to Pinterest, I just didn’t get the whole thing: why would I “pin” something that I could just bookmark in my browser folder? I can always right-click and save images into my personal desktop. Why would I follow people whom I don’t know and risk myself to whatever THEY wanted to pin? On top of that, I don’t have any followers and that is just embarrassing.

That’s how I feel most users start with Pinterest. It looks intimidating with sensory overload and an endless supply of scrolling. I mean, when will I know when I’ve reached the end of the Pinterest? (Hint: there is no such thing as the end of Pinterest).