You know those novels (such as Carson McCuller's The Heart is a lonely hunter), and tv programs that give an insight into the difference between people's lives. Ie. Between a rich kid and some kid who lives in the ghetto. It would be cool to see something like that in video-game form, the best vehicle I can see for this would be something like The Sims, but I've worked out how you could implement this in a game like Grand Theft Auto. GTA: slice of life. Every mission has you take over a mission where you control a character. The first mission could be to dispose of a body (as a hitman). But as the mission is completed it would then swap to a different person who lives in that city. For example a mom, whose mission is to drop off the kids, then pick up the laundry from the cleaners before going shopping. The next person would be a repo-man / bailif who needs to reposess that ladies car / tv because she hasn't been able to pay her bills. The next would be a stressed business man who needs to pick up a prescription for his heart pills. etc. Each level would give an insight into that character's life (and thus into a corresponding situation in real life). And help to build up a rich and varied gameworld. Maybe there would only be ten characters in the game and it would keep going between their storylines. Thoughts on providing a slice of life experience?

I like the general idea, but it lacks coherance. A better idea would be (you almost had it) to have all of the seperate stories link together - i.e. the hitman could have killed the wifes husband - the wife could then be the target of the bailiff, etc etc - eventually by revisiting characters a story can be told in a very "low-level" method.

You might struggle a bit with control, as you would expect the different characters to have different abilities. One reason we get lots of levels to try out Sam in Splinter Cell or Max in Max Payne is to learn how to master the character.

This, of course, depends on how direct the control is and how detailed the activity. You could create such a system in with a pie menu of choices, theoretically. But even then, it takes time to master how each character works.