I have never personally been a fan of "virtual life" games but after experience and watching siblings who enjoy this kind of "second life" status, quite literally Second Life the game is most recommended. It boasts safer game play with protection among its users by not releasing private info. The person who is manipulating the character can only put himself/herself at risk when he/she chats with a stranger on the game and gives out personal information.

Beside that, the graphics are mediocre but still surpass other virtual life games.

I haven't tried IMVU or Twinity, but I have tried both Kaneva and Second Life, and I would say that Second Life wins hands down. Second Life is not a game though, and anyone expecting a game would be severely disappointed, because Second Life is a virtual world in which you can do many of the things you can do in real life, and a few that you can't.

I've been in Second Life since 2004 and was a mentor for four years, and I would say that knowing what you are interested in and how to find other people interested in the same things is one of the keys to making a success of SL.

Initially, most of the builds in Second Life were to do with entertainment, but more and more of the people coming into SL to build are involved in education, to the point that whatever subject you would like to know about, you can probably find a build related to it.

I love meeting people from around the world that I would probably never have met in real life, and I love the creativity of Second Life, which is sorely missing from other virtual worlds I have tried. And it has the added advantage that if you have a skill like making textures, building or scripting you could make money too.