My answer to this is going to be simple. Online games and Table-top Games, have there pros and cons. In fact, if I could answer this correctly, I would have to say I enjoy both Online Gaming and Table Top Role playing just because they are both great ways to interact with other individuals in a community. Online communities are very noisy places to be. If you are on a server with a few thousand players, you are going to find it hard to contact a single person. Due to that being a problem, game developers came up with the "Tell" system, as used in Final Fantasy 11. It is also referred to as "Whisper", as in World of Warcraft. As well, you will get spammers in online games, which detracts from regular conversations between a group just hanging out in a marketplace type setting. Guilds tend to be very good places to hold conversations, so long as everyone is on the same page. It get really difficult to converse when you there are ten different subjects being discussed. Of course, table top games are just as difficult if your group has loads of Attention Deficit Disorder. If you have a group of 5 or 6, and you are the DM/GM, you will have problems getting your game moving when your gamers are discussing how work was, what level they are on World of Warcraft, what the latest comic out is, or even how the Renaissance Fair was last weekend.
The main difference between online games and Table-Top is graphics. Obviously, an online game has a screen and a computer or video game system. A table top game tends to require the imaginations of the players to make sense of the surroundings, such as a bustling city, a quiet forest, a mountain covered in snow, etc. If you have trouble visualizing in your mind that you are surrounded by 7 ogres in Dungeons and Dragons, you will have no problem when it happens online, because you will actually see it.
Online games have their perks, and so does Table Top. It really only depends on whether you enjoy being in the company of real people around a table, or if you enjoy talking to other people around the world. Either way, the sense of community will always be there, and real world problems will be there as well. You just have to find your little place in the make believe world, as much as you have to find your place in the real world.
In my opinion though, Online Games are less interactive. While you may control your image online, you can only do what the program allows. In other words, you are limited to what the games developers provide for you to do. In table top games, you are only limited by your characters actual limits and your imagination, and in some cases, whether your DM thinks it can be done or if they like you any. Indeed, Woe be to those who cross paths with the DM.
