Pen and paper focuses on the growing artistic and analytical development of people. It is entirely a world constructed in the mind and therefore focuses a lot more on creative and "out-of the box" thinking that can help propel a person into a way of thinking that allows them to be more ready to take on more difficult situations. Role-playing presents imaginary situations that you have to overcome in order to succeed, and much like in life where we play an event in our heads in order to prepare for any given situation, role-playing helps us enhance this innate ability so we can more intuitively anticipate given events.
On the flip side however, Online gaming does not present any of these beneficial attributes, instead giving everything to you visually without giving you the options for real person to person interactions for the problems that a person might encounter. When talking to a "non-player" character, the player is usually given several choices of what they are allowed to say without the chance for creative input.
The unfortunate decline in pen and paper players is a tragedy not only because of the loss of and art but also because of the loss of a method, and exercise in thinking
How to Videos & Articles: eHow.com
