Good fences make good neighbors, or so they say.  As a frequent host for various get-togethers, there have been a number of times where one group of friends encounters a different group of friends.  Your high school friends come to the same party as your college friends, your work colleagues attend the same event as your family, etc.  While it’s always a challenge and a concern on their compatibility, typically things work out well.  Granted, that is not always the case or else wedding planning seating would be easy — Don’t want to sit your boss next to your mom who might just tell him what she thinks of her son’s position in the company!

As a frequest participant in an ever-growing group of friends who get together and play regularly on XBox Live, I’ve been a spectator in many clashes of personalities or disagreements on how to play the game “right”.  Particularly as friend of friends, relatives of those friends, and work colleagues of those relatives join our group, certain personalities start to grate on others.  We have our own version of the The Guy Who Never Stops Trash-Talking and the Silent Types.  We have Whiners as well as Winners.  We have Guys Who Take Games Too Seriously and even a girl who believes a pink chainsaw is the answer to most questions … and quite often, she’s right.

I do not play online against random strangers very often and with a fairly large regular group of friends online, I don’t have to.  There is a greater sense of fulfillment of beating my friends in a well-fought match or even losing to a friend in a brilliant unexpected move than there would be against random people I don’t know.  While some people were more or less completely unknown at first (e.g. a friend of a friend), most have assimilated into the greater group and formed strong friendships.  Just as important, playing with my friends doesn’t allow the gameplay to degrade — everyone is friends with everyone else for a reason and eventually, people will come around and resolve their differences.