Some of those have end dates, others have technology research goals, in most you need to supply cities with a certain amount of resources that they need to grow

Some of those have end dates, others have technology research goals, in most you need to supply cities with a certain amount of resources that they need to grow. Almost all of them involve managing a transport enterprise that earns money by transporting goods of various sorts and ensuring that supply chains are uninterrupted (raw materials to factories, goods to the cities, usually with plenty of steps along the way). In that regard, they can be reasonably forgiving, as long as this simulated company of yours doesn't go bankrupt, and you can usually pause them and play at your own pace. To me, a lot of the fun is in planning out these supply chains and seeing how i could use the available types of vehicles in a somewhat efficient manner as well as building the roads and infrastructure that's necessary for that, though other players might enjoy an approach that focuses more on number crunching, while others might just want to make a total mess of things. I'd definitely draw some parallels with games like Factorio.