I always try to become friends with my partners. It's a lot harder to do in groups though, as timezone differences seem to worsen when the incompatibility isn't resolved by us meeting halfway, but by people going by whatever is the majority (if 3/5 people are from North America, as an European player most of the time I spent awake the others aren't even online let alone engaging in the OOC, and quite the contrary it is likely to become most active after or when I'm just about to go to sleep...).