I started my first succesful city (w/o a starter city) and it was great! Then, after about two hours of gameplay, MY 855,500 pop. city had a problem with people. It must have, because in less than 20 minuets, My city was reduced to about 250,000 pop. Get this IT WAS FOR NO APPARENT REASON. My popularity was high, all of the ordenances I could have had were activated, all buildings had water and power, I had full funding to schools, firestations, police, ect., police and fire coverage were excelant, taxes were only at 3 for everything (Ind., Com., and Res.), and everything else you could think of, I had it. It was the perfect city and my whole population (who still liked by the way) left the city. If you have a good reason for it , I'd say it was a glitch in the game. Don't get me wrong, it is a fun game when there is a reason to the sudden drops, but I don't think you can have a real good city that lasts for more than four or five hours and there is no good city, they'll all die out eventually. The only option you have is LOSS. I am hoping that SC 4000 will be MUCH better.