yes, I always have it on hand and use it quite frequently. many times i'll see something i want to come back to or try and make a note. I also disable "help" stuff when playing and refuse to pay attention to tutorials, so i tend to make my own notes. In some games, like fallout, I might find something hidden that I can't access yet. i'll make a note b/c my dumbass will forget about it.

I play mmos too and i'll vary up my combo schemes and write out what i've tried and liked and didn't and the order i liked best.

I must admit though, I use to use it a lot more. I would have books of maps and i'd draw out possible clues or work out puzzles. Either games have gotten dumbed down or i'm just playing idiot games. probably a mix of both.

I needed a pen and paper for The Witness. Can't recall any other time.
I guess Etrian Odyssey sorta counts but the paper is ingame. :P

Well, there are several ways. The obvious being power gaming. To level up you upgrade 10 sub skills. These refelect in the points you can allocate to the relevant skill - so upgrading 10 strength skills gives you +5 in strength. To get the most out of a character you want to be hitting +5 at each level.

The second is to record the character you create and their exploits in the world. I am sure there must be character stories out there, and you would need to make notes to record things.

Another reason may be that the base game has been made more difficult by adding mods (which is what I do), getting rid of scaling, map markers, fast travel etc. so you need to note where hard beasties are, chests missed etc.

You don't need to write anything down, just use all the helpful bits they put in games now - automap, fast travel, autosave etc. Pop the autowalk on and lean back, or blow doing anything at all an watch someone else play it on youlube which seems to be the big thing at the moment.

Yes, but I end up just doodling pictures of skulls, guns, and large breasted women.

To expand on what nightcraw1er.488 said:

Each skill has one single associated attribute, eg.
Heavy armour is associated with endurance
Sneak is associated with agility
Hand to hand is associated with strength
etc.
When you level, as you know, you get to increase 3 attributes by various amounts (anything from 0 to 5). The amount is calculated as the sum total of skill levels gained in skills associated with that attribute, divided by 2. So if you want to increase an attribute at the end of a level by 5, then you have to make sure skills associated with that attribute increases by 10 during your current level (ie it doesn't carry over). And if you want all 3 attribute increases to be +5, then you have to keep track of 30 skill point increases each level.

The major problem with this is that you level when your major and minor skills increase by 10 total, which, if the major and minor skills are skills you use a lot for your class, then you can level far too quickly and end up only being able to increase attributes by a little. Coupled with the level scaling of enemies, you can then become progressively weaker. I discovered that with my first custom class. I picked my major and minor skills based on what I expected to use all the time. Before I knew it I had a character that was ridiculously weak.

It's a really weird leveling system, and it doesn't make much sense. If you pick a magic caster type class and play like a warrior, the game will most likely be way easier than if you were to pick a warrior type class and play as a warrior.
I think that both morrowind and oblivion would've been far, far better if the leveling requirement used a simple experience bar instead.

I'm in agreement here; that's why I enjoy it.

I just walk around, do quests, kill stuff. It's fun and it's not a headache.

I haven't done this in a while now. I used to use a pen and paper to write my future build for Fallout 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Oblivion, but nowadays, I write in a .txt file or something similar.

You know it's really funny. I almost posted in this thread yesterday to say I do occasionally make a text doc on my desktop if there's something I want to remember / start up next day after a late night play session.

(you took ITEM X off your character, harvest those blueberries near TOWN Y etc).

But last night I actually had to grab the ol' pen and paper to write down... a shield override code! Star Trek 25th really is a great little game - and I'm not even an adventure game player - now OR in the heyday - so no nostalgia here. Just a pure, fun game to play.

Sort of sad to hear Spock and the old crew though. Weird to think of it actually - here they all were, and here I am now getting to spend a bit of time "with" them.

OT, but yes, Star Trek 25th anniversary is pretty great. If you haven't already done so, get its sequel Judgement rites too...in some ways that one is even better and more polished in my opinion.

I simply unlock my phone and jot down my notes. There's nothing really sophisticated such as drawing maps to do nowadays, which would be better suited for pencil and paper. Just notes like "Go to dungeon X to find monster Y to get material Z." or a solution to a puzzle or whatever. Doesn't help that this screen captures are a boon in this era.

Mines a Windows phone - far better to use paper :o)

You have OneNote.
One freaking Note.
If paper is better than OneNote, I don't know how to comment from here on.

This flipping piece of junk switches the screen off in calls, cant pick up sound on speaker. One note is naff, very basic, doesn't save and go back to main window, you have to press one note to go back etc. Surely you cant think, pick up phone, unlock phone by typing in loads of numbers, select onenote, create note, type in note, correct note as touchscreen is crap etc. Is faster than scribbling on a bit of paper?

It's as fast as you make it. While you make the process sound long and confusing, the part where one picks up the phone and types in the numbers is faster than you make it sound (and completely optional, you can disable that part at the expense of security), and while often not looked favorably, that's what autocorrect is for.

At the same time, I can ask you if looking for a pencil, then looking for a piece of paper, and then sharpening the pencil whether at the beginning or in the middle of your usage is any faster than simply dealing with it on the phone. Besides, in my case, when it's not college time, I don't have any pencils or paper in easy reach, but my phone has a higher chance of being right beside me.