This new SimCity is just an example of how much the games industry has regressed in recent years. Game design isn't about making games great anymore. Here we have a needless multiplayer feature shoehorned into a traditionally single player games series solely for the purpose of DRM and preventing piracy without actually enhancing the gameplay in any significant way, if at all.
Being a gamer sucks these days, especially a PC gamer. But at least there is some hope on the horizon with the advent of crowdfunding of games through Kickstarter (e.g.
Wasteland 2).
In the meanwhile I'll just stick with my Wii and old PC games from GOG.