Generally, "sponsored" news or feature stories are nothing more than glorified advertisements and aren't that interesting to read unless you're actually curious about the product or service that's presented. But a recent "sponsored feature" at Gamasutra might be worth a second-glance if you're a fan of Warhammer Online (via Massivley.com). Titled "Restless Entities Never Sleep -- The Back End of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning," it's an Intel-sponsored feature story that examines some of the technical aspects behind running and maintaining a MMORPG (or more specifically, Mythic Entertainment's WAR, as covered in this feature).

"In a recent interview with Online Technical Director Andrew Mann at Mythic Entertainment and Chief Technical Officer Matt Shaw," the three-page story reads, "we talked about the challenge of coordinating hundreds of servers spread across the world, the importance of normalizing the hardware platform on a common set of specifications, and the power and performance demands of processing millions of events across a 45-square mile world populated with millions of objects and thousands of players."

It's not the sexiest story of the day, but it might appeal to MMO fans with a background or education in the industries of IT and digital communication, or WAR fans curious about the "back-end" of the game they log into each day. Shaw mentions that 2000 servers support WAR's gameplay, and talks about the technology driving the machines spread throughout Mythic's network of "server farms" that distribute the load. He throws around a lot of technical jargon and describes specific products, like Intel's newest Core i7 processor line, when explaining performance and scaling capabilities. The feature's self-promoting agenda is impossible to ignore, but many MMO and WAR fans still might find it to be an interesting read. Check out the full feature here.