There's something brilliant and unique about From Me To You's animated GIF images.

If you haven't already, take a look at Dear Photograph. It's a beautiful, happy and sad website. I love it, it cuts to the heart of humanity.

At the end of November Professor Green spoke at an online video event I hosted. Not only is he pretty darn cool, he's done some innovative things with brands using interactive video. Here's one, watch and then drag around.

It infuriates me when I see articles that claim video games are harmful, such as this latest survey of 300 parents with children aged 6 - 18 by YouGov. Of the survey respondents "28% said they thought [playing games] probably was harmful."

Balderdash!

I have played games every single week since the age of nine. I play games for roughly 2 - 15 hours per week instead of watching Eastenders and have done so for over two decades. Yet despite this terrible affliction I am highly social, have a good set of friends, a good career, a wonderful family, a long-term relationship and an incredibly fluffy cat. As far as I am aware, video games have not damaged me.

Just as well because according to our recent Gaming Britain research, almost 33 million people in the UK play games, eight out of ten 8 - 65 year olds. If we look specifically at children aged 8 - 15 years old, 98% play games - almost every single child in the UK. 

A BBC study way back in 2005 found that 100% of the children aged 6 - 10 play games. Six years later and these children will now be aged 12 - 16. Not accounting for all of the people who have been playing games for the decades prior to this. If video games genuinely are harmful, there are a lot of damaged people out there.

Games are the opposite of harmful. They can be hyper social, pull families and friends together, build problem solving skills, teach patience, encourage practice, strengthen memory, demonstrate spacial awareness, improve reflexes, tell stories and so on. 

Hopefully next time someone considers crying "Danger!" about video games eating our brains they will consider these stats showing mainstream consumption. If not we should recommend a dose of video games to sharpen their analytical skills.  

A few of my rants about digital have been published recently. They look jazzier in print (which is odd) but here are some online versions:

• Emerging niche social networks and the bond of community
  (The Wall Blog / Brand Republic)
• Half of UK population play games
  (in MCV games trade mag)
• Opinion: Gamers are an incredibly misunderstood audience
  (NMA)
• 10 UK video game audience stats
  (Brand Republic)
• 10 awesome online ad galleries
  (Brand Republic)
• Trend Feature - Mobile: a premium product securing a bright future
  (InPublishing)
• Trend Feature - New forms of advertising - emerging big formats
  (InPublishing)
• Trend Feature - Trends and developments in online video
  (InPublishing)
• Trend Feature - Online targeting: the future of publishing
  (InPublishing)

Thank you Deviant Art.

People’re a nestful of needs. Dull needs, sharp needs, bottomless-pit needs, flash-in-the-pan needs, needs for things you can’t hold, needs for things you can. Adverts know this. Shops know this. Specially in arcades, shops’re deafening. I’ve got what you want! I’ve got what you want! I’ve got what you want!
- David Mitchel, Black Swan Green, 2008

The above picture is of a genuine scene from our front door in Clapham, and we receive that much mail every few days. It's so bad that I even went to the lengths of setting up the local website Love Clapham with the intent of running an anti-junk mail campaign with stickers for residents. 

So on 4 July 2011 I watched Panorama with interest because it was exploring "junk mail" and "scam mail". The programme itself was the usual sensationalist and slightly inaccurate story but meh, it's still got a point that we've come to expect. Considering I am a marketer, I have some sympathy with the companies using advertising mail because it works and I've used it myself in the past. It is actually possible to stop most legitimate advertising mail by going through a slightly lengthy process of unsubscribing. 

In my personal life, I find things coming through my letter box that I don't need or haven't asked for horribly invasive. However, even with a no junk mail sticker, things are still bad in Clapham with local newspapers, magazines, leaflets, junk mail, mail for previous tenants and more coming through the door. 

This has led to my three year plan to remove the letter box entirely. A plan with which I realistically believe it will be possible to do away with the letter box, thus stopping all unnecessary mail completely by 2014. 

Almost all of my correspondence is now conducted online, and I only really receive the odd bit of necessary post in the form of a bill here and there that I don't read anyway. In theory, this should all be online in three years time judging by current trends. Any parcels or essential letters I'll have delivered to work, or I'll time to make sure I am in. 

The final hurdle? Proof of address. Too many companies still rely on posted bills and correspondence for proof of address, which is slightly crazy. Give it three years though, and we'll be there.

Oh, and I suppose I'll be marginally upset not to receive any birthday or Christmas cards, but I always forget everyone else's birthdays, so by rights I should take that one on the chin.

IGN is an entertainment website largely aimed at a male audience that covers games, films, comics and more. I've been using it for over ten years now and I've always considered it to be one of the web's leading examples of 'how to do a website'. Content is excellent, the layout has really improved throughout 2010 - 2011 and the site has always been a pioneer of new technology like community, interactivity and video.

The publisher obviously has a fantastic presence on laptops and desktops which works well on tablets like the iPad. IGN also makes good use of TVs by delivering video through the Xbox 360 games console. However its smartphone app (I've used the iPhone version) hasn't made the most of the medium as much as the publisher's other platforms. In fact, I personally believe publishers of this type should forget closed apps like this unless they offer/need offline functionality and concentrate on a more open smartphone / touchscreen friendly site for all smartphones.

Interestingly, this is what IGN has done. Its recently revamped smartphone site is beautifully created with touchscreen friendly links, menus and buttons. The site is stripped down without compromising on content and still delivers full high quality video and imagery. You'd be easily mistaken for thinking this was an app.

Across the site you'll see display banner ads. The other week when I was looking at the site, I was extremely excited to see a perfectly timed Interflora ad for Mothers day. I clicked on it and lo and be-hold, the Interflora site was just as incredible an example of a smartphone site with excellent touchscreen functionality including a swooshy rotating image gallery. You could easily make a purchase within minutes without any pain whatsover.

The experience was quite literally phenomenal. I've captured it in pictures below but strongly recommend you take a look on your own smartphone - m.ign.com

I've now spent some quality time with Nintendo's 3DS and I highly recommend it as an all-in-one portable games console. The 3D really works and makes games better by giving them depth. There are some good pop out 3D moments, though 90% of the time you barely perceive the 3D, yet you know it's working because that mountain or that goal genuinely feels a certain distance away. It's a strange feeling. The system itself is a decent upgrade, it's powerful, the main screen is nice, the analogue stick is a blessing Apple's products can't compete with and the firmware feels futuristic rather than restrained like the Wii.

Spending one sunny Sunday around London's Southbank and Borough Market, I've had fun with the 3D camera too - way more fun than I expected. Although the quality is shockingly grainy, the effect shows how powerful the 3DS can be. Some photos look like you've paused real-life. I hope an online sharing option becomes available, like Instagram's on the iPhone, as the more creative amongst us will really enjoy playing with this.

All in all, the 3DS is a little marvel and I'm excited about future games on it. Pilot Wings, the built in Augmented Reality games and Street Fighter are currently an excellent start. However there are some things that need to be improved, and I hope Nintendo do release an upgrade in a year's time. Required improvements include:

• Design: call me superficial but the 3DS casing is hideous. Nintendo went through a phase of making their products look decent but the 3DS' aesthetics are truly naff.
• Field of vision: read any 3DS article and it talks about the 'sweet spot' for the 3D effect, and it really is a tiny spot. Move a millimetre out of this and the 3D effect goes berserk. It's fine for now, but something seriously needs to be done about widening the viewing angle.
• Another stick: adding an analogue stick was one of Nintendo's best moves, so why not add a second? Almost all games these days require two control sticks for movement and the camera. It was a mistake not to include two on the 3DS from the off.
• Touch screen: the iPhone got touchscreens right... four years ago. The 3DS touchscreen is functional, but pants in comparison with those found on smartphones. It needs to be as responsive to touch as it is to using a stylus. Don't get me started on the use of a stylus.
• Battery: the 3DS sucks the juice out of its batteries faster than a baby drinking milk. When the iPad lasts for hours and hours, the 3DS needs to as well.

The next time you think about starting a Booker winning novel or an Oscar winning film, instead, please think about starting the BAFTA winning Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

It upsets me that while millions of people have and will experience the Assassin’s Creed video games, millions more won’t because they "don't play games". This year I've made it one of my missions to challenge people's perceptions about modern day video games - what I perceive to be the greatest entertainment medium.

The Assassin’s Creed games are very different to what people think of as a ‘game’. Beautifully recreating realistic and incredibly accurate locations from different time periods, they transport you to another era in a way far more immersive and memorable than any other media can. In the latest game, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, the plot is told in a way as epic as any film and contains as much story and factual detail as any book. Yet it’s totally interactive and the vast city of Rome is stunningly laid out before you. Allowing you to run, climb and explore anywhere from the Colosseum to a half built St. Peter's Basilica, complete with art work. There is lots of fighting, however Assassin’s Creed is much more than the hack and slash violence you may know from other games.

Naomi Alderman at The Guardian wrote a wonderful summary about the intelligence behind Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood saying, “Set in Renaissance Rome, it goes out of its way to educate about the historical period and setting.” And it genuinely does. If you’ve been to modern day Rome, you’ll recognise landmarks in the game, and here you can learn even more in this virtual recreation by experiencing the time period for yourself. I know more about Italy’s history from the last two Assassin’s Creed video games than I learnt from my two holidays there.

Often people think video games are shallow mindless experiences, which is incorrect. No more so than in this game. The story throughout the Assassin’s Creed games is deeply complex, piling layer upon layer of love, sex, corruption, war, politics, history, family and all the while questioning society, humanity, religion, reality and more. If you think video games are about mindnumbing violence and action, I challenge you to play this game and learn afresh what world-class, intelligent entertainment is all about.

p.s. I forgot to mention that alongside the mammoth story, you can also play with your friends online. Yep, it's one of the most impressive pieces of social media too.