US Patent 8388450 Expanding the gaming social network with unrelated players

Methods, systems, and computer programs for expanding gaming social networks with unrelated players are presented. For the player of an online game, one or more selection rules are determined defining a criterion for selecting users. The determined selection rules are applied resulting in a set of candidate game friends, where at least one of the candidate game friends does not have a social link with the player. Additionally, the method includes an operation for presenting the plurality of candidate game friends. An operation to link, in the online game, the player with at least one of the plurality of candidate game friends is then initiated in response to an input from the player. The operation to link may send a request to befriend the candidate, or to link the candidate without the need for permission when an automatic acceptance is in place.