Impossible meeting

I know several people who are really into online gaming and rpgs, so I told one of them about second life and he seemed interested in trying it out (especially once I told him it was free). We are close friends, but rarely get to see each other because we both go to college far away places. So I thought we might be able to use Second life to connect in a more physical way. Rather than just IM'ing, we could go see a movie or go for a drive. But, even though his home computer is setup for online gaming, even he couldn't get SL to work properly, although he got a lot father than I did on my home PC. It really makes me questions the use of virtual environments like SL. What good is an online community, when so few can connect to it on a regular basis? And, even though I come to campus to use SL for the class project, will I still feel like coming all the way to campus, just to log on for no reason whatsoever.