suggest ideas to solve a problem in my online game!

I'd developed an online game this is a game that they sign in before a game starts and any of those players looks for an specific target in their pc. I think my players need kind of more motives to convince them play!

so before any round of game when they've time to sign in I want them to be able to find out if people important to them are playing that round!(I take their compelete names) can you suggest a system to make that happen?

I don't need technical details just the idea!

How are the 'important people' classified (for the player)?

I think there is a little bit of a language barrier. Do you want to make a lobby for your game, where players can see who else is in the room and choose friends to play the game with?