They're really trying to amp up the multi-player interdependence aspect.
Can other cities in the same region do anything when their master isn't there but I am at mine, or is it just on pause but providing me with positive and negative modifiers based on its attributes? If he let it pause while a fire raged, and I build a fire station, will my guys go put it out? Is it like the fucking twilight zone where my firemen go in, immediately become paused, and NEVER RETURN? That would be awesome.
I'm curious where the line is on those issues.