If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of a thousand virtual Allen wrenches driving those weird screws and locks into a thousand ghostly Ektorp sofas and Leksvik coffee tables.

This is the day that IKEA brings a selection of its actual home-furnishing inventory into the virtual world of The Sims 2, the life-simulation game that has sold more than a million copies worldwide since its launch in 2000.

The game, now published by Electronic Arts, lets players create a character or a whole family and then set them running in a 3-D world to pursue their aspirations, act on their desires, interact with their neighbors and improve their lot in virtual life.

And that’s where the IKEA placement comes in. While the Sims are able to grow and age, learn, marry, raise children and yes, eventually expire, a large part of the game’s appeal is in the scads of stuff players can buy to trick out their Sims’ lifestyles. Marriage and death are one thing; but the core of the Sims’ being is really in the shopping.

To date, most of that consumption has been in fictitious furniture and goods created specifically for the game. But as of this morning, players can bring a large truckload of reality to their Sims’ lives. Today is the drop date for the “Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff Pack”, a game expansion pack that will make some 75 items of actual IKEA inventory, from desks and bookcases to desk lamps and bunk beds, available for placement in Sim households.

The software, available either as a download from www.thesims2.ea.com or on a disc available at retail, sells for about $19.95. While financial details of the placement deal between IKEA and EA were not made available, press reports suggested that it might include a revenue-sharing agreement on sales of the software instead of, or in addition to, a sponsorship fee.

IKEA’s iconic blue-and-yellow logo is prominently featured in the center of the cover for the new stuff pack.

EA maintains that it’s incorporating the IKEA brand into the game at the behest of its players, who maintain a large number of user forums both on and off the official Sims 2 web site.

“Players of The Sims have asked for IKEA by name, and if you look at the living spaces they design, it reflects the style of IKEA,” Steve Seabolt, vice president of global brand development for The Sims, said in a statement. “The IKEA collaboration with The Sims echoes the desire of players to see real-world brands and products for which they have affinity integrated into gameplay.”

It may also reflect a growing acceptance by virtual gamers of the need to let brands into their simulated worlds. Back in 2002, an earlier version of The Sims struck a sponsorship deal that made McDonald’s fast food available to Sims in-world, and the player community responded with charges of a sellout.

That seems no longer to be an issue. Last July EA collaborated with fashion retailer H&M on a stuff pack that let users assemble outfits for their characters from actual H&M merchandise and then take part on an online fashion show. Players could also design a runway for the fashion show, with the winning entry and event featured in a YouTube video.

The online Sims community has also long featured a section where players can upload characters, skins and objects they’ve designed for sharing with others free of charge. The current featured download on the site is a Sim version of the Ford Escape Hybrid SUV that has been generated and uploaded directly by the design team at Ford. It fits in the garage next to previous downloadable Fords: the Fusion, the focus, the Edge and the Mustang GT.

One question is how well this real-world stock will fit with the game’s trademark tongue-in-cheek take on consumerism. While The Sims 2 seems a relatively safe environment for brands compared to shooter games such as the grand Theft Auto series, its capsule descriptions of items in its catalogs has tended to make gentle fun of the belief that owning the right rug or desk lamp can improve your Sim’s life, or your own.

Then too—and all but the geekiest game players can skip here—the items available for sale in The Sims 2 are assigned values for their ability to help the Sims relax, re-energize or learn, usually keyed to their cost in the game world. An expensive king-size sleigh bed is more relaxing than a cheap single cot, for example. Where will the IKEA merchandise fall on this price/comfort scale? If they get less than 10 out of 10 for comfort or esthetic appeal, IKEA may feel its products are not being presented favorably. But giving them top marks should also mean pricing them at top dollar, which undercuts the retailer’s traditional value message.

Weighty questions, for which I’ll have to wait a few days for UPS to deliver the disc with the answers. All that can be said for sure right now is that unlike real-world customers, the Sims will be able to get their IKEA goods delivered for free, and fully assembled.

Come to think of it, Sims get career-advancement points for acquiring mechanical expertise, so making assembly unnecessary could be neglecting a game-integration opportunity. Putting together a Helmer bureau or a set of Lack zigzag wall shelves with that Allen wrench might just give a Sim enough points to walk into a job as a nuclear physicist.