Radu Luchian(ov): Pastime: RPG
Web Adventurer's Role-Playing engine
If you're interested in developing around WARPe or in using any of it's applications, you may subscribe to my 
support list. There you can ask questions, check FAQ files, etc.
WARPe is simply a safer, faster, more customizable solution for RPG,
adventure and strategy fans. Read the alternatives which I tried and
got disappointed with, then see the characteristics of my dream engine:
Customizable. Based on the MonDoc platform, WARPe is essentially free (but I do suggest that if you're an end user, you reimburse the game developers for their effort)
Adventure: for me, any virtual world is only the background setting for a good session of storytelling. This is why WARPe is as flexible as possible; to paraphrase the OuterLimits motto, "we can take you to thousands of virtual realities full of magics, religions and technologies or expand a single virtual world to crystal reality".
Technical:
rendering,
zoom in on the maps/dungeons,
arbitrary number of windows,
peer-to-peer,
variable update rate,
IP information,
security
Interested? join the WARPe discussion group.
Alternatives I tried:
- Dungeon Siege: ok, this is not really a MMO engine, but it's a really good single and multiplayer one and does lots of things better than Bioware's Aurora kit.
- Neverwinter Nights: Bioware seems to have reached some of the same ideas I had on this page for a couple of years now.
- Runescape: A really nice Java-based MMORPG 3D-rendered and really fun if you can make abstraction of the cheesy mobs and environments...
- FaitH: This seems to be a strategy-based web RPG; a strange meltdown of turn-based gaming into a persistent world; build yer city, train yer armies, feed yer peasants, interact with yer team, join forces to attack other teams... Seems fun, but I got no time for that right now
.
- BlackMoonChronicles
- EverQuest
- RedMoon: I spent many days on this one and totally infuriated my wife in the process. At some point I was hooked on it. But then the repetitive nature of the action overcame the medium variety of items, skills and characters available and I decided my time was too precious to spend it on hack'n slash action. My decision to quit was greatly eased by the facts that the security and the user experience were continuously undermined by hackers (who'd use the connection to get into my machine, or simply PK my characters with speed-hacked critters), combined with the many annoying bugs - like the ever-elusive building entrances and the way-too-long area loading times. The story from the comic they are publishing doesn't reflect almost at all in the game itself, so that was another disappointment, since I like adventure. In conclusion, this is definitely a good game for people who like to chat a lot and for action heads. The graphics are pretty nice, and they keep improving them. The beta version was free.
- ElementalSaga: the first massively multiplayer game I joined for more than a week. I didn't stick around it long, though, because it kept crashing on me and the lag was sometimes absolutely impossible. But they have cool graphics and an even nicer story. The beta version was free.
- ...and many other RPGs and games listed here.