[Ieghaehia9]

A video I watched not too long ago expressed something similar as "in some RPGs, society exists for you" (e.g. you, a random escaped prisoner, can just waltz up to the local lord in Skyrim and be taken at face value). "In others, you exist in a society" (and the guards will keep you from even entering the nobles' district unless you're in good standing, which takes a considerable amount of the game to get).

It's not quite the same thing, because that example is about how other people treat you, not whether they've got lives of their own; but in a broader perspective, it's still about how much the game seems to be a prop for the player's enjoyment vs. being a proper world that doesn't fall apart five days after the player wins.

[kaycey2022]

This immediately echoes the points laid out in this video comparing Oblivion and Avowed. Avowed is a new 70 dollar game that just came out, in 2025. The interesting part is the design of the towns people in the new game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhL1NZugsBk