New here, so if this is in the wrong section, let me know. I want to make an online browser based game. It'd be 2-D and I'd likely be programming it myself. I'm going for something like Gaia Online's "Towns", meaning it would be just a place for people to walk around and speak to eachother with avatars. No battle system involved, mostly because I don't want to program it, and also because the whole leveling aspect of an online game really doesn't interest a girl like me. Also, I'd like a system where users could upload sprites of their liking to use, as opposed to using one's with premade clothing like on gaia. This would be a private project, mostly just a place for my friend's to chat. Any idea's how I should go about doing this? Note: I'm not rich, but I can spend some money of software. Free ones are preferred.

Well... You need to understand how these sorts of things might work. Is the game going to be client/server or peer to peer? client/server means you will need a server to host (which either means hosting yourself if you ISP and connection allow it, or you pay for one). If it's peer to peer, then how do the players interact? You could try and run it off the back of an exisitng protocol (eg it be a front end for an IRC bot interface)... In short there are a very large number of options and approaches you might take. Java client? Flash client? Is the work done client or server side? Are you planning on hosting yourself? paying for hosting? hosting elsewhere? Does it really have to be browser based? I think you may have picked a project with a much larger scope than you realise... so I suggest you investigate it all in a little more detail (and check you have the skills you need to do it... and if you don't, start learning!).
Hope you get it off the ground!

Dan

The reason I wanted it to be browser based becauase I wanted to have my friends in the area play, and I know some of them have crappy computers and aren't able to download anything.
The players would interact by a chat interface, just talking is necessary.
I have a domain name on Blue-Host that I originally intended to have as an art site, but unfortunately it never got off the ground. I have a large amount of bandwidth to use and lots of space that currently have nothing on it.
And I realize this is a large scale project, but it's something I really want to do and I'm willing to put the time and effort into it.
It will only be a private server, for my friends and aquaintances only.