How can you be friends with someone you have never met?

My Lotro friends are probably tired of this topic because it has been talked about before.  Yet I find myself consistently amazed that a group of people from all over the United States can and do consider themselves friends - good friends.  Several people know that one of my hobbies is computer gaming - more than Facebook Frontierville, although I really like that too.  I play a game called Lotro (Lord of the Rings Online) in which people come together with other people that have this similar interest and work either together or independently to complete different objectives or "quests" that somewhat follow the Tolkien trilogy.  There are a group of people whom I have "met" online that I consider some of the nicest people I know.  We all come from different backgrounds, economically, educationally, politically, and geographically.  Still somehow we found each other and there isn't much I wouldn't do for any of them.  I am certainly in the narrow part of the bell curve when it comes to age and playing a game of this sort, although there are more grandparents than you would expect.  These people I write about have developed a sort of family.  We look out for each other.  We celebrate when a baby is born.  We grieve when a friend dies.  We support one another when we know we are struggling in real life.  These are people who continue to shape who I am. I learn something from them everytime I chat with them.  Even when the game itself gets tiresome or boring I find myself checking in with these folks just to find out how they are.  We are all different yet we are all the same in that not only do we like to play together but we all have real life struggles that we must plow through everyday.  I am proud to consider these people my friends and believe they feel the same way about me.  It is nice to know someone based only on how they treat other people, not what they have or who they know. So to my Lotro friends, I salute you.  You fall into the category of where I've been and where I'm going both.  Thanks.