To appreciate the smell of your own feet after a cross-country hike.

A serious answer? What's harder in games than in real life?

Interaction and problem solving, for one thing. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a situation in a game where I can see a solution to whatever I'm facing (say, climbing over and around that pile of rubble on the floor) which I'm prohibited from doing because the designers didn't WANT me to do that. It's "artificial" to force me to go walk through some area I haven't found yet, when I can see, and in real life COULD GET TO, the spot I'm trying to get to.

Or, I might see a door, and it's locked... but the hinges are facing me. In real life, I'd knock the hinge pins out, and remove the door that way. Trivial, really. But, in-game, that's an "impassable obstacle."

Jumping and climbing problems require me to follow set patterns, with set timing, in most games. In reality, I'd have a LOT more flexibility in what I do and how I do it. Any game which requires, rather than actual PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS, "learning the muscle memory for perfect timing of a scripted sequence" (and "Batman - Arkham Origins," I'm talking about you!!!), is a BAD GAME.

Ultimately, the more "real" a situation is... with multiple options for getting from point A to point B and accomplishing my goals... the more I like it. "Red Faction" with its destructable enviroments allow for nearly infinite creativity in that regard, for example... can't get past a steel door? Blast the rock it's attached to and either go around or let it fall to the ground once it has nothing left to support it!

The real thing that games do worse than reality.. is creating artificially-constrained "puzzles" which are utterly counter-intuitive and would NEVER happen in real life (even if all the other game fictional constraints were real!)

What else? In reality, I can vary my speed... in games, I can either "run" or "walk" (or sometimes "creep"). Variable movement speed is a fundamental part of reality... but in games? Not so much.

Oh, and shooting. In games, you're typically either unearthly accurate, or "randomly" inaccurate. There are very few games which allow for a realistic shooting mechanic. (And most of those which did were early Clancy games.)

It is harder to keep situation awareness in firs person games, as lots of perception cues are absent and the visual field is narrowed. Then again, minimaps and smart cues like sounds, distant or close (like in the combat in The Witcher) or vibration, and colour palettes and the design of objects and living beings etc may help reminding you of where you are in the game.

Some senses in games are still far away from perfect ;)

Sight: *****
Hearing: *****
Touch: **
Smell: *
Taste: *

In the games I usually play it's a lot harder to avoid other people... though at least they're not real people. (yeah, I don't play multiplayer games - obviously...)

In games, I have a way harder time not falling into holes compared to real life. I'm around a lot of holes too.

Navigate obstacles. Video games generally don't let you break things unless they're specifically scripted to be breakable, climb on stuff unless they're specifically scripted to be climbable, crawl under stuff unless they're specifically scripted to be crawl-under-able, etc. Even if you've got some sort of super-human powers for some plot reason and can leap tall buildings in a single bound, you may still end up being blocked by a tree branch or a trash can or something.

> things are HARDER to do in games than in real life from your perspective
1) Refraining from violence - nowadays, in the vast majority of games, violence is not only encouraged but in many cases required. There are very few games where you can go the "pacifist route". Wish there would be a lot more games that are peaceful.

and similar to the first one:

2) Show genuine, good, natural human-like emotions and feelings - when was the last time a game has asked you show compassion, love, sympathy or even just pity more than just once or twice? What's the last time you saw a game whose sole purpose was to show good feelings and emotions?

Casting magic missiles. In games you need mana, scrolls, caster levels, magic components and/or heavens know what else.

Walking through doors. In real life, I'm pretty good at opening doors most days. In video games, I can't help but walk into them for a little while, then to the walls on either side, before finally reaching for the handle and opening the door.

Putting items down in a manner you wanted and turning it off.

Gathering your party before venturing forth.

As hard as it is to go through real life for decades without a break, it's even harder to do that in a game.

Getting a moment of peace and quiet

Following traffic rules.