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Denuo’s PLAYED staffers are romantics through and through.  That said, instead of a bundle of roses, we crafted this sweet-smelling bouquet of gaming insights and news, gently placed around titles involving science-fiction terror, Russian stacking dolls, and 3D tech, delivered straight into the palm of your hand.  You can feel the love, can’t you?

In this month’s issue, we look beyond the third dimension of Nintendo’s new 3DS handheld.  While everyone is agog over glasses-less 3D, the handheld brings even more functionality to the social and casual game spaces than first thought.  On the mobile gaming side, we check out the big, exclusive steps that Google’s Android mobile OS platform has taken to move into gamers’ hearts and minds.  Meanwhile, we examine Facebook’s virtual currency market shake-up with the rollout of Facebook Credits and its effects on the social gaming space, and wrap things up with a couple Denuologists weighing in on EA’s marketing effort for their latest hit, Dead Space 2.

Last week, we had the pleasure of helping run the world’s first Tweet Race for Mercedes-Benz. Along with our colleagues at Razorfish, we took four teams across the country in Mercedes-Benz vehicles that were “fueled by Twitter,” meaning the teams had to generate social media activity to keep their engines running. We designed a game around this that involved the teams competing in challenges, stoking their supporters for extra Tweet Fuel, and various tasks to accomplish both online and offline, all building up to a winner based on the strength of their social network and their skill behind the wheel.

Over a frenzied three days of racing, we learned a lot about games, digital marketing, competitive spirit, blizzards, Dallas ice treatment controversies, live event management, and when to let go and enjoy the ride. Join us, won’t you?

This time of year brings us warm holiday cheer, carols sung by choirs, and the droning moan of the undead as they wander the streets for fresh brains.

Wait, what?

In all seriousness, zombies are the monster-du-jour nowadays. The success of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and films like “Zombieland” point to them becoming a cornerstone of pop culture and, of course, this includes the digital space. Online, one can learn how to defend themselves against the undead hordes, run simulated survival scenarios similar to the classic game, “Oregon Trail,” or dispel certain myths that have cropped up in recent years about zombie culture.

Don’t think of this as issue 73 of Reflecteur, think of it as your handy survival guide to online zombie infestation. Also, happy holidays.

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Whether its how many friends our brain can process on Facebook, or pulling a “Being John Malkovich” and living vicariously through someone else’s Twitter feed, this week’s Reflecteur is socially aware of all the nutty things our favorite social networks can do to one’s mind. Also, see how mapping APIs are being used to reflect racial issues in urban environments and The Pool’s latest research results for short-form online video.

All this, plus making fun of hipsters, in this week’s Reflecteur.

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The latest issue of PLAYED is NOT in another castle, nor is it stuck in a warp pipe somewhere. It’s here, live, and ready to deliver another helping of gaming-related insight. Think of it as a power-up mushroom for your marketing mind.

This month, we dive into mobile gaming, taking a closer look at how your phone will be the next battleground for social gaming networks and the marketing innovations that come with them. Also, Super Mario Bros. turns 25 years old this month and we celebrate how Nintendo’s most stalwart brand has reinvented the company time and time again. Speaking of reinvention, read about Sony’s success with PlayStation this year, thanks, hilariously, in part to one Kevin Butler, Sony’s VP of…well, everything. Finally, with gaming becoming a hot-button political issue, we look at how gamers and developers are taking action and informing voters about issues related to their rights.