[masraum]

Yep, you can absolutely develop meaningful friendships and attachments over the Internet without having even met the person face to face. No, there's nothing wrong with anyone that develops those friendships and then feels a loss.

My condolences on the loss of your buddy.

And another thing to think about. There are tons of folks that I've repeatedly met face to face that I have not developed friendships with. Face to face is great, but not necessary, especially these days. I have a feeling the only reason that you've even considered this is because you're of a generation that for most of its life really ONLY had f2f interaction, so this whole remote/virtual thing seems foreign to you even though you've been doing it a while and have gotten used to it.