The feature of socializing with people one already knows makes a lot of sense to me. My best friend lives on the other side of the country, and yet we manage to spend a few hours together most days, with Yahoo IM and our MUD.

But for people who don't have someone to meet, I'm wondering how it generally works for people to create their sense of identity in SL. That is, a person can take the initiative to talk to people they find, to go to events, and to join groups, but there isn't an obvious path into it, and a lot of people seem to just explore a bit, then never come back. I think that people often need a sense of "personal narrative" that motivates them to return, and that it would make sense for the Linden people to program a bit more of that into the game.