It depends on what gender of gaming. I
In an FPS, you want:
-a realistic enviorment. I mean, if your in a junle and you pass by a bush and the bush doesn't move or amke a sound. then that's just a waste of space and animation.
-realistic enemies. If your in a forest lke in far cry and want to sneek to one place and you move, you make a can fall over and no one even comes to see what it is, that just stupid. The if they have to much A.I then it's stupid because the first thing they see move they'll shot at. you'll be beter off doing the real thing and hopig for the best.
-grahics. Well, I see people play Far cry 2, Gears of War 2 and play it as if was a regular thing but I see that and my heart almost stops. The first time I played Half Life 2 I almose sh*ted my pants because of the grafics and see thies ass holes on their freakin couch just sitting there. It really adds to the experience, The more realstic the grafics ar the more you feell like your living that life you can never doo in real life.
-Story. The most important part of realisim, you want something that can actualy happen in the past, in the present or even 20000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 years later. Not some bullshit thing that just is stupid. If some super advanced thing like some guy makes a airship that can go light years away from earth happens abut a month from now, that's just stupid because we are ssssooooo far from doing that. Then we don't what it to realistic like "Jak came home from the office, he went to bed. He first went to brush his teath" that's just boring.
RPGs
-You want it magical, most of the best RPGs are some magical adventure and they make it work. RPGs like advanced war have the realistic aspec in it and they make it work. Depends on the RPG
I honestly don't want to type anymore but the basic point of this is that, every gender has a different balance. What makes this balance is the setting, time, and story. If they don't fit together then it's not balanced and is considered a fail. Again, it all depends on the gender, story, setting, dialog, and other important details that can't be ruined or the rest is too.