I have a game that I'm planning on releasing as a series (30 minutes of gameplay to level up and advance the story, a boss battle, then an ad for one of my commercial games (the series will be used for marketing purposes), then the credits, and then the next week another 30 minutes of game play, boss battle, ad, credits, etc. I plan on having it start in a fantasy setting, and then in season two move to the modern world. The fantasy portion will be in a system of caverns set up to appear as the surface (the sun will be an artificial light driving the water cycle (thus creating the water droplets necessary to simulate sky), soil was imported from the surface to facilitate plant growth, etc. The inhabitants will believe that there is nothing above them other than the sun, moon, and stars (again, all artificial lights), when there will actually be our world above them. In season two the heroes will discover a method of flight (I'm thinking at this point dragons who assist the characters in battle as summons in season 1, then as trust is developed transportation) where they will find an exit to the surface. On the surface they will discover that the world they grew up in was a fabrication for an experiment in human development, and the stones that allow their weapons to have "magical abilities" (such as shooting flames, creating powerful winds, etc.) are actually power sources (similar to batteries, only more powerful considering the size to power ratio) that were added to the experiment as a variable (along with the knowledge to forge "magical" swords, staves, clubs, etc.). The season then takes place in both worlds. My question is, season two would take it from strict fantasy to a sci-fi/fantasy mix. Would that pose a problem, as far as getting fans of season 1 to download episodes from season 2?

I've seen this kind of genre blending done successfully before. Aren't Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star good examples of this?

Maybe you want to drop hints to players before they sign up so that they know that they're not getting into a straight medieval setting. Perhaps then they won't feel cheated.

I'm thinking of making other "races" (I hate using that term for people because of the evolutionary connotation, but I can't think of a better word) more advanced.

The storyline essentially is that a nation decided to run an experiment to see what would have happened if different groups would have had semi-modern technology early in existance (I'm thinking somehow this ties in with time travel, testing what would happen if they ever did achieve it and left some of their technology in, let's say Feudal Japan).

After the subterranian world was set up infants of different ethnicities were taken to various parts of the world (with caretakers, of course), some left to start from scratch, some left with archery, hand cannons, etc. on up until the late pre-nuclear era. I'm hoping that the descriptions of the different countries on the website will give a hint that it's technology driven without giving away too much of the plotline (I like the players to be surprised).

Of course, I've run into another problem. With this storyline I would be using actual ethnic groups (Anglo, Saxon, Norman, Celtic, Semetic, Asiatic (including American Indians), etc.). Naturally, there are going to be wars simply because of human nature. I'm not sure how to handle it without coming off as racist, though.