Whether you're interested in chatting in virtual towns, selling virtual goods, playing arcade games, or making virtual friends, you can choose from a wide variety of online games. Although the games below are all free to play, some might charge a fee to buy virtual currency, or they may offer a VIP membership that lets you access additional features.
Four Fun Avatar Games to Play
Depending on your age or interest, one or more of these four online virtual avatar games will likely be loads of fun for you.
1. Active Worlds
In Active Worlds, it's like entering a gallery of countless unique worlds built by users and exploring each one to your heart's content. It is an especially good game for those who love building worlds. But if you're not up for intense world-building, it has prebuilt locations organized by themes such as Cities & Towns, Real World Replicas, and Historical.
2. Second Life
Used by businesses, colleges, and individuals, Second Life is a popular game that lets you use your avatar to explore the virtual world, hold meetings, purchase land, go shopping, and earn real currency (the Linden dollar) by selling goods. The game is geared toward players who want to create a virtual life by purchasing and developing property, working, and taking part in daily tasks.
Although Second Life is free, a premium plan is available that lets users create homes and have access to virtual currency rewards. Users also need to download a free chat client to access the virtual world.
3. Roblox (Great Choice for Parents and Kids)
If you're in the mood for something less sophisticated than Active Worlds or Second Life, something you can play with your kids, then Roblox is a dream come true. It's designed for kids primarily, and you see this in the visual look and the strict safety features. Most of the worlds are games designed by expert users, but these games are serious fun for kids and adults alike. Some of the best games are:
- Fashion Famous (aka Fashion Frenzy): Pick an outfit based on a theme, then walk the catwalk where your fellow gamers will score your new look.
- Hide-and-Seek Extreme: Play hide-and-seek in a giant virtual world with timed rounds. The person who is "it" changes randomly every round so you get turns being the hider and the seeker.
- Natural Disaster Survival: Each timed round places your avatar in a virtual environment where a different natural disaster is randomly selected. You must do your best to survive tornadoes, meteor attacks, blizzards, floods, fires, and tsunamis.
- Work at a Pizza Place: Get a job at a pizza place where you can work the cashier, make pizzas, be the store manager, handle inventory supply with a big truck, or be a delivery driver. Cash in your paycheck every day to buy new furniture for your virtual house.
- Gymnastics Gymnasium: Pretend you're an Olympic athlete training at a virtual gymnasium complete with all the same gear that real training centers would have. (See video below for an example.)
It's free to sign up, build your avatar, and play all the games, but some special bonuses in certain games require a currency called Robux, which you can purchase using your debit card.
4. Twinity
Twinity's slogan is "Twice the life, twice the spice," and that about sums up the style of the game. It's spicier, meant only for grown-ups, and it is known for authentic connections. Each avatar is a real person in the real world (no fake A.I. accounts filling up the place). You can use the voice chat option to talk to the person with your real voice like a phone conversation. You can also design and throw wild parties. The connections feel more real, and the fun is more adult than in some virtual worlds. It's free to use, but it only works with Windows.
Find a Second Home
Since many of these games include similar features, choosing the right game can be time-consuming, but worth the effort. It is important to consider the features you want to use and the type of virtual world you want to live in. Once you've settled into your virtual world, it'll be like arriving at your second home whenever you log in to play.
