Is The Sims A Virtual Dollhouse?

For me it is although it's also much more. It's a means to tell stories using your imagination and move around your little characters and dress them up.. so yeah that part is dollhouse and is quite wonderful. It also is much deeper in that it's own gameplay comes out. Some unexpected things can happen. You can learn how to make their lives easier or figure out the different things that can occur because you went down some game play path (had them join a career, paired them up with a sim with different traits, gave them a bad reputation ect.. ect...) You can also watch and barely guide them casually, or manage their time fiercely to keep on top of needs or goals (either game driven or player driven).
I still mostly think of it as a dollhouse for brevity though. Probably because it lets me more vividly do what I most want to do .. tell myself a story.