I can see it and measure it. I am a part of it. I know most of its rules, and I can study it in an attempt to understand it better. In fact, I often perform experiments in Minecraft to observe how the world reacts.
So I would argue that the term "real" could be taken to mean observable, establishing a repeatable, consensus view among observers of the same world; measurable, producing identical, repeatable measurements by different observers, and stable, in the sense that in the absence of actions taken to modify the world, it persists between observations. These characteristics also apply to many instances of virtual reality.
We use the term "virtual reality" to refer to a subset reality created in and embedded within a superset reality. We can observe that this hierarchy of realities is at least two levels deep, but we cannot assume that it is at most two levels deep. It follows that the precedent set by the existence of a two-level hierarchy of realities implies the possibility that a third level of reality exists, and that this reality that we call simply "reality" is, in fact a subset reality, created in, and embedded in a superset reality.
The dreaming virtual reality exists only because the higher lever waking reality contains a brain that generates the dreaming virtual reality. The computer generated virtual reality exists only because the higher level "real" reality contains a computer that generates the subset virtual reality. We could imagine, by extension, that this "real" reality which we occupy exists only because some mechanism exists in a higher, superset reality, which generates this reality. There is no violation of cause and effect, and no invocation of mystical or magical thinking. This is simply an engineering hypothesis.
And just as your dreaming self cannot perceive the superset reality of waking reality, or observe, detect, measure or test the hardware/software (brain) that creates that subset reality, so it would not be possible to perceive, observe, or otherwise measure or test the superset reality of the particular subset reality which we inhabit.
The scientific method is a powerful tool when used within the context of a single level of reality. But it fails when we try to apply evidence for one level of reality to a higher, subsuming level of reality. It would make no sense to try to deduce the nature of "real" reality by making tests in the Minecraft virtual reality. Likewise, it would make no sense to try to deduce the nature of the superset reality in which our reality is embedded by making tests in our reality.
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