I'm starting on a javascript MMORPG that will actually work smoothly. Currently, I created a demo to prove that I can move characters around and have them chat with each other, as well as see eachother move around live.

http://set.rentfox.net/

Now Javascript timers are something I have not used extensively, but from what I know, correct me if I'm wrong, is that having multiple setIntervals happening at the same time doesn't really work well b/c it's all on a single thread.

Lets say I wanted to have 10 different people nuking fireballs at a monster by using sprite background positioning with setInterval -- that animation would require 10 setIntervals doing repainting of the DOM for sprite background-position shifts. Wouldn't that be a big buggy?

I was wondering if there was a way around all this, perhaps using Canvas, so that animations can all happen concurrently without creating an event queue and I don't have to worry about timers.

Hope that makes sense, and please let me know if I need to clarify further.