Baldur's gate and The Sims are two very different types of games. But they seem to have several aspects in common, most important perhaps the attempt at convincing the players that the avatars are "real people" or characters, that they are ruled by certain laws, and that the player needs to relate to them not as agents of random acts, but as personalities, with a logic which can be explained from the physical and social reality they live in.

MMmmHmmm, can you tell I want to go home and try the game?