I know what you mean. The social aspect can be a big part of the game. There was even a player that I kept running into on the play money tables who actually talked in the chat box and was nice. Just by chance, we ran into each other over and over throughout a week. Got a lot of chatting in between
hands. I've actually looked for him this week, to see if he is around.
Sadly, he is not. I feel like he might have gone busto near the end of the week. He wasn't the greatest player and he was buying in really short (40xbb), although I never saw him buy-in for more than 50xbb. And, the last hand we played he lost everything and said something about losing his chips and being done. I assumed, at the time, he meant that he was done for the day. But, maybe he lost everything and was done (at least at those tables) for a while.
Even chatting online is not the same as the real tables.