Since the original release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 the world has been introduced and changed by social media, especially the world of gaming. Facebook, Twitter, blogging, commenting, Flickr… these are all familiar elements of our days, often when we should be working. And when we’re not being “socially connected” in that sense, a growing majority of gamers are connected via Xbox Live or PSN, even when we’re not actively playing a game.

Search for “Marvel Vs. Capcom” on Youtube and the first page will yield over 5 million views – 5 million! Do you know what that means? For one thing it means people like recording and watching 100+ hit combos, and that hopefully MvC3 will have a method of capturing and distributing videos of all our epic battles.

This also means you can convince your friends who may have never heard of MvC3 to play because they liked Iron Man 2, and maybe you’re posting a video of yourself trouncing Captain America on your Facebook page, which equals free advertising for both Marvel and Capcom, and thereby potentially more content for us.

So you just finished posting your video of your team of Iron Man, Dante, and Deadpool vs. the Cap., Ryu, and Morrigan. Guess what? 1 million other people have posted videos with those characters, too. So what does that tell Marvel and Capcom?

Downloadable Content. If particular characters are not only being chosen frequently, but also being talked about in a positive light, it makes financial sense for them to offer downloadable content, both free and paid, in relation to those characters. Costumes should definitely happen. Custom backgrounds for your 360 and PS3 are a given.

But if Iron Man is extremely popular, and the powers that be notice an upswing in videos, conversation on Facebook and Twitter, or illustrations on Deviant, then those in charge may notice other characters becoming more popular in association.

If Iron Man is constantly being associated with the Mandarin, and they can charge 3 dollars for an additional character, well you can figure it out. All of a sudden, Marvel and Capcom have a Rock Band model for the fighting game genre – where they can gauge our interest in the game to create new content that we would be willing to pay for on a monthly basis.

So will Marvel and Capcom actually follow this model? It’s possible, and it’s likely. But for this to happen to the benefit, and not the detriment of gamers, we need to maintain and encourage others to be vocal and social.

Keep updating your Facebook about what characters you’ve mastered. Tweet that Chris Redfield is your favorite and you want to build a Resident Evil team. Post videos when you completely pwn your friends in a shutout. It’s the best way we can voice what we want with the new means available to us, and show gaming companies that we are willing to make it financially beneficial for them to listen.

And for those of you that don’t believe that your voices will be heard, well, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is finally being released, isn’t it?