Every person’s view is different, and there’s no sure-fire way to make a friendship happen. Anyone who tells you there is, is either lying or has a lot of power or money that attracts “yes men”. Other genders are available.

So, as with anyone else’s experience, my advice is purely anecdotal - and it’s basically “don’t be a dick”.

That’s an incredibly reductive soundbite, but in short, I try and be decent to other people and encourage people to be cool with me. No ego, no perceived power dynamic, just chill - for the duration of whatever we’re doing. It could be playing online, a videoconference for work, an academic meeting, and project team - whatever. As another poster said, the vast majority of time I don’t go into interactions looking to come out with a new best friend or a new romantic partner - partly because the former makes you come across as insincere, and mainly because my partner would have something to say about the latter.

Of a hundred interactions or meetings or encounters maybe one will start firing on all cylinders from the get-go, and you’ll find that you share loads in common, they’ve got a similar sense of humour, or even you may be mutually attracted to them from their video feeds - whatever. For the most part, I’m sad to see people I’ve met leave at the end of a project, an academic grouping, or a game sesh - but I didn’t click with them enough to actively want to see them again.

That one-in-a-hundred may develop into a “hey, I play this other game/with another group” or “man you know your shit, we should stay in touch” or “jeez I could learn a lot from you, fancy swapping details?” - and it may well be that you’ve read it all wrong and they think you’re a bellend. It is what it is, it’s their call and it takes two to tango.

If the planets align though, you’ll get a good friend, a romantic partner, a decent teammate or a brilliant colleague that lasts for years.

In short, if you’re pretty sound and go in with the best of intentions, giving everyone* the time of day, then you’ll at the very least make the best of whatever situation you’re thrown in (voluntary or otherwise), and at best you’ll find someone equally awesome and it’ll run from there.

Either way, good luck. I hope you find someone to play with/enjoy their company/chat shit to soon.

*does not include obvious cockwombles of course. The definition of which is left as an exercise for the reader.