Family and friends, to a player, are names to be crossed off a character sheet when enemies get to them or when they get too annoying. So goes The Real World. These people don't have families. Most returned home from school one day to find their parents murdered by orcs and their houses burnt to the ground by bandits. Most people join the cast of the Real World because an old guy at the bar asked them to.
Players like to make things up as they go along.
They like to gradually establish a character in game and then do something out of character and argue that it was in character. Then they'll kill a random party member when no one is expecting it and argue that was in character too. And one character always turns out to be gay. Similar situations arose during my time on The Real World, both in game and out of character. Only the minority cast members came to the show with a character concept.