As almost everyone in the MMO gaming industry is probably aware, today was the release of the World of Warcraft Cataclysm Opening Cinematic. A new commercial appeared during Sunday afternoon’s football game and immediately the web was abuzz with the pure awesomeness that is Deathwing. If you haven’t seen it already, be sure to take a gander at the new opening movie that will play the very first time you log into World of Warcraft Cataclysm sometime after December 7th.

I put together this montage video for IGN Entertainment’s WoW Vault that shows all of the areas that were rendered in the opening cinematic. Players of the largest MMO will be able to visit all of these locations that Deathwing traveled on his very first flight of freedom.

Who hasn’t heard of Unreal, the trilogy of shooters from Epic Games that took the world by storm back in the late 90’s and finally gave ID Software, then leader and front-runner of the still maturing shooter genre, something to be worried about? Since then, Epic Games has gone to release two additional Unreal games, and the underlining game engine has been licensed to a dozen top-tier gaming companies.

In fact, these days, Epic is perhaps better known for the wide success of its Unreal game engines, which includes a full suite of graphic rendering, gaming physics, and sound processing. By licensing an Unreal engine, developers can then focus on gaming content rather than the underlining functions that make a first-person or even a third-person game function. The Unreal Engine 3 has gone on to be the most widely licensed engine of the three and is used in both Epic’s own games, such as Gears of War, as well as other blockbuster hits. Perhaps you didn’t know it, but Mass Effect, Borderlands, All Points Bulletin, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Mirror’s Edge, and a number of the Tom Clancy games all license and use Epic’s gaming engine.
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So you want to create a website for your guild but do not know where to start? Well, this article is perfect for you then! I just recently went through rebuilding the community website for my online guild and had to face decisions many of which do not have a right answer. Building a website for anyone can be a daunting task, but I am going to share some of my experiences to help you get started with some of today’s most powerful Content Management Systems (CMS).

Figure 1: The Z Guild Site

While it is perfectly acceptable to create a website from scratch, there are a lot of things to worry about if you go this route. Everything from basic user handling to security needs to be addressed, and those are no easy tasks. The more complex you make your website, the more challenging it becomes to track everything. This is where the Content Management Systems come in. Teams of developers have bonded together to create highly customizable website templates that require a limited amount of HTML and programming experience. If you just need a simple static page to display information, then a CMS is complete overkill, but if you need the basic community package, which includes forums and a photo gallery, then a CMS is definitely the way to go.
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