Is this the latest version? I tried playing with an earlier version, and it was a drag - you had to babysit the characters, or they wouldn't take care of themselves (and eventually die from not eating). Also, I tried SimCity and SimTower. The version of SimCity that I played had these very strong biases built into it, so the simulations ran according to a high-level model of the designers, rather than having the people follow fairly simple rules, which seemed to be the way SimTower worked. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think these are all by the same team.
It sounds as though it might be worth looking at the newest version.
It sounds as though it might be worth looking at the newest version.