We see the same trend when we ask specifically about friendships that have formed with someone players met online. For example, when we ask players whether they have become good friends with someone online, the gender difference is actually quite small. Most men and women have made good friends in an MMO.

Where they differ is how strong and personal those relationships get specifically in terms of how much transcends the physical-virtual boundary. In another question, I asked players whether they had ever told their online friends secrets or personal issues they had never told their friends in the physical world. Here we see that women are much more likely to share secrets with their friends than men are.