30 min blinds live is roughly the same as 7-8 min blinds online.
I think what you're asking about "opening up" has more to do with how fast the structure is than whether or not it is live or online.
There are adjustments to make live, and I feel like not enough folks on this forum are aware of, or care to admit these.
contrary to popular belief; live players are not terrible compared to online players. At the lowest levels you will have some recreational gamblers that maybe wander in from the casino floor and these players would NEVER just wander into an online
poker site, but at the higher levels ($200+) people are there to play poker, period.
due to boredom, you can expect people to play a few more hands than that same player might play online...a few more speculative hands....a few more multiway pots but they don't necessarily play those hands poorly.
there is a phenomenon with tournament life in live poker.. people don't want to bust out of the tournament; some players have more "gamble" in them than others but busting out has a whole bunch more negative emotional and social and financial consequences than busting out online does. Because of this, I think it is MUCH MUCH MUCH easier to
bluff live than online. In fact, online I almost exclusively bet for value. Now, that being said I still don't bluff a ton live. But, when I I'm playing live and I find a spot where I know this player can't call me without the nuts I'm happy to put him all in....and online when I try those same moves in the same spots I get called ridiculously light....
Your read is much more important live than it is online. I can't think of much to say to back this up, except that it's really true. Online you can pass up marginal +EV spots because you know you can find a better spot later. Live just goes slower and so you're going to be seeing fewer hands and be given fewer opportunities so you may have to take a read and put a lot of stock in it.
Everybody is only watching 1 table. That means you are watching them and THEY are watching you. Image is quite important live, and I would say it almost doesn't matter online (there are spots where it does of course). Just as important as knowing the players, is knowing your image AND knowing who is capable of adjusting to your image and who is not.