I like the overall idea of the launcher however I would have went for the Blizzard style launcher. You can see the Blizzard launcher below and also how I think it would look on Emps-World.
Blizzard
Emps-World
I did not aim to make it look perfect as it was created quite quickly but you can see the basic idea I'm suggesting. The launcher should have navigation to the following sections: Main website home page, forum, wiki (wasn't sure what else so I added donate however I'm sure a lot more could be added).
The slideshow would work the same way the current one works (on the beta client) and would scroll through a certain amount of images (3 of the recent updates?) and users could read more by clicking on the description below it (taking them to the main topic on the forum) and also clicking on the main image to enlarge it (like the current system works).
The featured box could be anything from having a sneak peak at the new update or even asking the community what they think about one of the updates already released. This could also feature some of the competitions on the forum (such as signature of the week) and also the event dates for important events (such as Christmas Hide and Seek).
The play button would be the exact same of how the current button works such as opening the actual client for the user, nothing really changes there.
I've also left the same amount of space along the left side of (where the Blizzard games were listed) in-case I've missed anything important. If the space was removed I would also suggest another box for listing all of the staff members currently online as this would be quite helpful and I already know a number of users have suggested commands, etc for this feature already. You can see an example of this below:
The status of the staff member would be set to away if the staff member did not move for around 15 minutes. High administrators would not be listed for obvious reasons (getting spammed to hell).
Final product
