[Cybsled]

Curt's avatar looks like the bastard child of a Beholder and the green planet thingy from the covers of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books ;p

In terms of making a franchise, it obviously is a solid idea...although it can take time to build. And it isn't always a guarantee. Riddick did this with the Dark Fury anime that tied in as a transition between Pitch Black with Chronicles of Riddick, as did Escape from Butcher Bay (although it was released commercially post-Chronicles or right around the same time, if I'm not mistaken). While Butcher Bay was a solid game and the lore for the Riddick Universe was intriguing, it didn't translate into mass commercial success. Chronicles was a decent flick, but it didn't make the bank the suits were likely hoping for. SiN also tried to do this with the anime (which, AFAIK, is/was doing well in Japan) + the promo stuff with Bianca Beauchamp, but the new SiN games just never really took off. I never got the sales figures, but it seemed to be all for naught in the end game-wise since the dev team kinda fell apart/disbanded.

I guess the point is that making a franchise can be a good thing, but it isn't a guaranteed success for the primary product you are hoping to push. Alot of that rests on the primary product itself + how much the public embraces your new world. I do think it is a good concept that you are trying to get some backstory out there, so to speak, so that it becomes a means of drawing people to the MMO.