I agree with a lot of your points, Das, but I don't think all of us treat online friends the same way you do. Out of all the online communities and clans I've been a part of, there are only four or five people I have had contact with outside of those games via MSN, Facebook, Skype, etc. and they were all CoD: Finest Hour clanmates (PS2 online baby). I don't typically make lasting relationships with people online that extend into real-life. I don't know why this is, I just typically don't and I don't think I'm alone in doing this either. I guess my point here is that, for me, friendships made in-game are codependent on my actively playing RuneScape.