One of the worries with this current generation Simcity is its focus on specialized cities. Specialized cities were a concept used in previous games like Simcity Societies where players could make an authoritarian city. This changed the environment to make the city feel as if it is being controlled by a dictator.
In Simcity (2013), players can specialize their cities to create a “casino” city or focus on “coal,” etc.
In an interview with IncGamers, game producer Jason Haber shed some light on the issue to make it more clear. IncGamers asked if you can freely choose your own specialization, or if your are limited to what the game decides to place in your city:
You’re never going to be pushed down a certain path, but there are those that will require you have certain resources available to you. For example, for coal specialisation you need coal in your box. However, having coal in your box doesn’t mean you have to use it, you can ignore it and do something completely different.
There’s no reason for you to follow a rigid route, this is still a sandbox game…
Well you can rest well knowing that you don’t have to make your city one particular type and stick with it to the end.
I would also like to mix specialisations. Like build a big coal city, that could have som casinos build downtown.