Epic Gives the Power of Life and Death in Gears of War 3 July 22, 2010

And I thought I was stuck in 1997, Epic seems like they’re stuck in 1993, back in the heyday of the invention of 1-900 numbers.  Remember how that went?  Okay I’ll tell you.

In 1993, DC Comics had this brilliant idea with the heyday of interactive premium telephone and 1-900 numbers to set up a poll of the readership to determine the resolution of a cliffhanger.  But with something like this there had to be something major at stake.  Jason Todd, the second person to carry the title of “Robin” was trapped in a building with a bomb left by The Joker.  The bomb went off, and Batman was unable to get there in time.  Did he survive it?  You call one number and he dies, you call another and he lives.  You’ll be charged for each call.

Well what happened?  Because they had to pay for it, the majority of people who really hated Jason Todd called in.  When the final count came down, Jason Todd was going to die and there was nothing DC could do about it.

DC never did anything like that ever again.

In 2010, Epic is letting their fans vote on the life or death of one of their new characters, a new member of the Carmine family.  They will be offering two different avatar t-shirts for sale on Xbox Live Marketplace, one promoting that Carmine lives, and one promoting Carmine’s death.  Whichever shirt sells more will determine if the character will survive Gears of War 3.  All money from the proceeds are going to benefit Child’s Play.

The entire Carmine family has not done well in the Gears of War games, currently they’re at 0-2, with a different member of the family being killed at or around the beginning of each game.

Gears of War 3 is coming April 2011 only for the Xbox 360.