I'm not sure if they are real people. I started two sessions and I didn't see my other self, despite being in the same location. Also, both times, the starting place was the same. If that would be the case for everyone, there would be many people there who just start the game.
There's probably a bunch of different rooms/shards/servers and you get randomly allocated to one when starting
Yes, you are right! I opened one game, and then opened like 5 other of them, and the final one got the same server as my first. Multiplayer confirmed!