I've played Farmville and Forge of Empires. Farmville was fine but I just lost interest. Forge of Empires, on the other hand, got very tedious and has serious restrictions in what you can build and accomplish. There are people who play it long-term and enjoy it, so I would still say give it a try if it appeals to you, but I felt stuck in a muddy swamp, making very little progress, and then looking at the advanced cities, I didn't see much to look forward to. An unpublicized aspect of Forge of Empires is that other players can raid your city and steal your much-needed production goods, and there's no way to turn that off, you just have to build an army and hope yours is bigger, and of course if the raiders have laser guns and you have clubs, you're out of luck.
I haven't played SimCity for awhile, but it's much more flexible in game play and gives you a better sense of making progress in building your city, plus there are virtually unlimited ways to personalize your city. I for one LOVE parks and put them everywhere. I wouldn't have survived SimCity without finding the cheat code to have unlimited money, however: running a city within a budget is tough work, and I want to build, build, build! But anyway, you don't need the cheat codes, you just need patience, because I've played it without cheats and enjoyed it that way too.
