[plamzi]

When I was mudding actively and living in Europe, people from across the continent that I only knew from the game would come to visit. Of course, it helped that my friends and I lived on the seaside .

Now, many years later, a sizable chunk of my Facebook contacts are old mud friends with whom I have absolutely nothing else in common.

I can't imagine this kind of thing ever happens in WoW (but maybe it does, super-ultra-mega-rarely).

If I were to speculate about reasons, I'd say community size and game intensity would be at the top of the list. An overpopulated, casual game is not likely to bring people together repeatedly and for long enough periods for bonding to take place.

Also high on that list would be gameplay maturity. Regardless of actual player ages, a well-run and well-moderated MUD is much more likely to inspire people to interact as adults playing together, building a world together, enjoying themselves responsibly, etc. Compare any MUD to modern MMO free-for-all melees of seemingly imbecile and immature little monsters cursing, ego-tripping, and generally rolling over each other... And I know that many older people play WoW. But if I did, I sure as hell would not be making BFF's left and right.