Suggested layout

Why do you want to copy your competitors layout? That's just so un-original and un-creative. What's the point of re-doing what someone else has done? My advice would be to go in a completely different direction. Dump the 3-column layout (every gaming site I've ever seen uses that! Do something different!).

To get a medieval look you're first of all going to need some better fonts. Look around on free font sites for something suitalbe. Also look for decorative dingbat fonts to make into interesting graphic shapes. I would probably also change the colour scheme to something less blue. Dark red or purple with gold accents might work. Or you could try going with silver as an alternative to the gold other sites have used. Actually, blue and silver would be an easy combination to work with. Look for graphics tutorials on metallic effects.

Look for websites for renaissance festivals or medieval fairs - they might prove to be inspiring, even if it's just for the photos of their activities. You could also go to the library and look for books about that era.

go away from the traditional black bg...try a normal white with graphics laid on top, i.e. the warcraft logo in the background (transparent, so that you see the text faintly...make sure you give credit to blizzard for the logo) with maybe a dynamic nav bar at the top using buttons/images that looks like the actual game buttons? throw in some fonts that look old and dark, and you got it.

I've never seen a gaming site with a navigation on the right..But I use a two colom layout for my gaming site located at aocgaming.com (Servers go down quite often though)

navigation on the right is not an eye pleasing thing, english (and many other languages) read left to right, top to bottom, so the natural placement for a nav bar would be the top or the left, easy to find

Actually, some argue that the logical placement is on the right! The rationale is that the content is most important so it should be seen first (on the left). Also, since the scrollbar is on the right, the natural position for the user's cursor is on the right side of the screen, so therefore the navigation should be placed close by so that the user doesn't have to move too far! I think Nielsen was the one who proposed this and it does make sense when you think about it. However, the adopted convention is left side navigation so that's where users would logically expect to see it so in most cases that is the best way to go.

Just a sidenote

wow, i have *never* heard that before...it does make sense, but it seems very odd, as we have the "Start" button in Windows on the left (bottom), the "dock" in OSX in the middle, but nothing on the right.

the scrollbar, i believe, was placed on the right to not interefere with reading, viewing, etc...(possible discrimination against lefties? thats the conspiracy theory...as it would be easier for them to stay on the left than move to the right)

It is thought that right side nav will help with search engine placement. They see the content before nav images and other junk that people may put below their navigation.

I use right navigation a lot, or three columns, nav on both sides (primary and secondary).

It also helps with accessibility, as the navigation comes after the meat, and isn't as important (who wants to listen to the entire nav every time you click a link?).

I have the dock on the right in osx (it does move, you know). When I was using a pc, I tucked the bar at the top of the screen, and the right for the office bar. That solved all my display problems (hidden, both). I don't have the dock hidden in OSX.

K let me describe the Theme of the site Oh wait.. you can visit http://www.blizzard.com/wow/movies/ and download the movie if your internet speed is fast enough.. this shouldn't be taken as a "big" favor after all the March "2003 GamePlay Preview" should be fun to watch (good ghraphics but the combat skills need more work).

K i will be brief.. The History starts at From Warcraft (first edition) t0 about 30-100 years after WarcraftIII Make sure you dont include the "undead" history because they dont take much of a role in the "World of Warcraft"

Here is the "very" brief history with no description
you may want to go here for the history http://www.world-of-warcraft.org/history.php

or type warcraft history in google.ca

Maybe you should consider Post-nuke CMS to do that. There are some similar themes and you can change them with ease.

hm...well i was just saying about defaults and such...but, oh well