Maybe I've misunderstood it, but how does merge mining create an incentive to mine namecoins? I figured all it did was make it "cheaper" to mine namecoins by "reusing" work done for the bitcoin blockchain. In order for the namecoin network to function, you still need to actively get involved with it.

Here's some information on merge-mining for anyone else involved: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/273/how-does-merg... http://dot-bit.org/Merged_Mining