"You should be surprised by how simple this is, and frankly skeptical of how you can build a SimCity game out of this," joked Glassbox system designer Andrew Willmott at GDC on Wednesday. Willmott broke down how the Glassbox engine works on a basic level. Glassbox was built with all future Maxis-made simulations in mind (classics SimTower and SimCopter were namedropped as possible directions to go, though these are obviously not announced products), though for now it's being utilized just for the upcoming SimCity revival. The meat of a Glassbox-powered game is split into four object types: Resources, Units, Maps and Globals. These are tied together by Rules that are dictated by game scripts. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/164870/GDC_2012_Breaking_down_SimCitys_Glassbox_engine.php
It makes me wonder though if it's feasible though. I liked the old RCI Model. It was clean, simple easy to understand.
It sounds like they're trying to make it a more complicated model than the old one. Perhaps people thought the RCI was too easy.
There was nothing wrong with RCI except it only allowed you to make one kind of city: Urban. It did not allow you to make a themed based city.