This will only make sense to fellow City of Heroes players.

Praetoria bores me.

Firstly, for those who say "it's just a game"? Yep. It is. And that's why Praetoria does not offend me... it merely bores me, it's just a game. I'm tired of seeing that message of "nobody's a hero" presented as "edgy" and "cool", it makes my eyes glaze over with boredom. To try so hard to fill a place with "grey zones" that you only come up with a bunch of black is immersion-breaking for me, and it makes me rush out of the unpleasant and boring plotlines. Does this happen in the Isles and Paragon City as well? Yes! Several plots are just as stupid. The difference is you can opt out of them and go do something else.

Praetoria offers no such option, and is thus a boring place to me.

When people try to defend the actions of the characters in the game, that rankles me a bit. There is a reason revolutions in the real world that are long on propaganda but short on actual solutions are filled with young people. An inability to empathize with people who disagree, and inability to think past the short term are, in fact, recognized signs of immaturity. Not only is it immature, but it is also cowardice to say "by any means necessary", because those means invariably involve people who just want to be left alone dying for your cause.

The only person who should ever die for your cause is you, those who raise arms directly to fight against you, and others who directly take up arms with you. It is immaturity to believe it excusable to put the lives of people who have nothing to do with a conflict ahead of your own life.

Let's make this easy: Sending people to blow up a hospital to prove your enemies are not infallible = immature and cowardly.

Sending people to raid and destroy a military target to prove your enemies are not infallible = desperate and possibly crazy, but a mature and brave decision.

That has been my entire objection to Praetoria and why it is so boring to me. All of your choices except one involve your character forcibly being a coward. The one which DOES allow you to show some empathy and gives you a mature set of principles to stick to? In the end you're again forced to be a coward; and worse have to put up with the game telling you how evil you are for trying to make the best of a bad situation. The Responsibility Loyalist path, right up until the end, gives you chances to right wrongs no matter if it's done by the gangs, the Resistance, or elements of Cole's own forces.

The Warden Resistance path forces you to look the other way, and the only reason you can get the Resistance to ever cease an atrocity is because otherwise they might out you as a double agent. You cannot get the Resistance to be brave and mature by your own actions, you can only look the other way and make weak, hopeless statements to a group clearly led by someone equally as mad, but for more chaotic than, the "Tyrant" they're trying to overthrow.

I say the Praetorian plotline mostly appeals to immature folks because it DOES. Lack of empathy and cowardice, a willingness to throw others under the bus (but never putting yourself at risk to protect the people you are supposedly saving) to further your own cause are actual real signs of immaturity.

To paraphrase KoToR, which is in fact a further paraphrase of Chesty Puller (and if you read Orson Scott Card you'll recognize something Ender said which also derives from this old Marine's saying) , "Warriors kill because they hate who opposes them, Soldiers fight and die like maggots under a blowtorch when necessary because they love what they've left behind."

Another nice chestnut of his is "Soldiers step in front of civilians, cowards use them as bargaining chips."

Guard your women and children well
Send these bastards back to hell
We'll teach them the ways of war
They won't come here anymore

That is what "by any means necessary" really means. It means you stand up and give your life to protect people who will never even know what you've done for them. You say "I will die for you, to protect you". Sometimes collateral damage happens, and it should pain you when it does, but to intentionally target civilians or, through your own inaction, allow them to die is cowardice.

And some people are simply immature cowards. It's a big world out there, and it takes all kinds to populate it, but one should at least be able to accept what they are. If you don't want your arguments to be called immature, then stop making immature arguments.

A lawyer acquaintance of mine has said there are three kinds of Defense Lawyers in this world. Type 1 are the wide eyed crusaders, who really are doing their best to ensure an accused gets a fair trial. Type 2 are those who talk like type 1, but it's all bologna. when push comes to shove, they do what's best for their career and all that rhetoric means nothing. Type 3 are those who simply like money, are good at lawyering, and don;t really care what goes on so long as they win the case. He freely admits he is type 3. He and I both respect type 1 and type 3, even if he disagrees with the morals of 1 and I of type 3, because they're not hiding behind a layer false righteousness. Those who beleive "any means necessary" includes sacrificing innocent persons to make a point would find themselves right at home as a type 2 criminal defense lawyer.

At least with Statesman and Recluse, you know where you stand and can do your own thing accordingly. In Praetoria? You're forced to be evil, ultimately.