I'd say yes. I would love to get into a game like Cities XL, but they take so long to learn, I'll just push it away for another day.
If you need an indie recommendation, try Heileen, Cinders, and Spirited Heart. Make sure you only buy it from BMT Micro otherwise it is twice the price.
Spirited Heart is a child raising sim, the other two are adventure/novel games.
I have a wishlist for some redux games: European Air War. That was awesome and later sims just have the flying with none of the other frills.
I've also played through Warcraft 2 again I loved it more than Warcraft 3. You can build up big armies and not have a tank of hero resurrecting for 800 gold or whatever it was.
I also play some of the Total War series games to death.
I can't see the big game co's doing anything original and awesome.
Even a good game like the Sims will get dumbed down so more people can play it.
