possibly a missed opportunity...

Now I haven't played Going Rogue yet...since I'm neither a friend nor a relative of anyone at Paragon Studios (or work for them) so that's why this is a possibly missed opportunity...

Enough rambling...let me explain.

Now we all know by now that Resistance means heroic and Emperor Cole means villainous. I personally think that there was a real opportunity to muddy the waters beyond what we've seen so far.

As there are two sides to every coin so there could have been two sides to each of the factions in Going Rogue. I'll give some examples.
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Heroic while working for Emperor Cole:
No, you didn't misread that. Emperor Cole and his cronies give out missions that are good PR (however they don't tell you that, they make out that you're just being heroic for heroics sake), you save civilians from an outbreak of Ghouls from the tunnels, you disarm bombs in high population areas, saving hundreds of live and deliver aid packages to those in need. To the civilians who are none the wiser of what's really going on, you're a true blue hero. You get sent on all the 'in the spotlight' missions where good looks and charisma are as important as beating a giant monster to death with your bare fists.

Even back in paragon word filters through that your 'helping the masses' and the average joe on the street who really isn't that clued in would begin/still see you as a hero despite the fact you're working for a dictator, perhaps people think you're trying to make reforms from the inside. Of course you could be 'in on it' and despite what Emperor cole and friends tell you, you know these are PR stunts but major rep boosting PR stunts at that!

Villainous while working for Emperor Cole:
You're an attack dog that's let off the chain, Cole would use you much like he does Marauder, when someone needs a violent beat down and a large warning delivered to the rebellion that he isn't going to pull any punches he'll send you. These missions are definitely of the 'black ops' variety, nobody talks about them in the papers or the PR spin merely mentions violent clashes with the 'evil resistance'.

Further down the line you're inducted into more of the inner circle, the Asylums revealed, Chimera tasks you with assassinations of major resistance figures to keep morale down. You've shown you can be brutal but now you've got to show you can be subtle as well. These assasinastions are never mentioned outside of your contacts, the people on the street don't know what you do but they know you're with Emperor Cole, however there are hushed whispers about what you really do...
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Heroic while working for the Resistance:
Freeing the starving masses, doing generally good work, helping the homeless, taking out key military targets and generally throwing the yoke off the masses yearning to be free. It's clear you're one of the 'good guys' to the people back home, however the citizens of Praetoria may not see it that way.

Villainous while working for the Resistance:
There is one word to describe you, vicious. Paragon city AND Praetoria both see you as a terrorist, you go after highly populated targets for maximum media impact, who cares about a few innocent sheeple caught in an explosion when you destroyed an Asylum. You've poisoned aid supplies to give Emperor Cole a bad name and generally put people in harms way in your attempt to overthrow Emperor Cole, people don't matter as long as Cole and his precious utopia burn.
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It's a shame they just went with 'one side good, one side evil' when there were so many more options to explore.

Seeing as it's not out yet, and that they've told us that there are choices to be made in the missions, how can you know that it's *not* as black/white as the website suggests? You don't put the plot on the back of the book synopsis, after all.

that's why I said it's a 'possibly' missed opportunity...I haven't played it yet so I can't say, I'm merely going by what we know...if it turns out there is options for heroics and villainy with each side...then hooray!

your description of villainous while working for the resistance pumped me up. Now I'm even more excited!

From the site:

The description of the resistance says its full of all sorts of outcasts, good and bad.

it is odd that it bothers you to this extend.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Standard disclaimer: no inside information, I could be wrong.
Since the game has just started friends&family alpha, there is probably still time to add villainous resistance and heroic loyalist content if it does not yet exist. The major requirements are:
1) that the morality system supports this. Since we currently have 'villainous' and 'heroic' tags attached to missions instead of contacts (and there are some contacts with both tagged and untagged missions), I think it should/will be possible for a given contact to offer both 'good' and 'evil' missions.
2) that the devs want to do this. I think they do. For example the Tyrant and Calvin Scott bios on the GR site could have been far more black/white than they are. And even if they don't - they could, if enough players ask for it.

And there is also the possibility that the players themselves could do this through the Architect. I do not recall anything being said on if/how the 'morality' setting of Architect missions will interact with the 'morality meter' of characters but there is potential there as well.

Emperor Cole is the law, legally. My heroes will obey. The Resistance is terrorism, legally. My villains will be happy to assist. We'll see where the morality chips fall.

This thread's title made my internal space-time continuum go crazy.

I missed an opportunity in the future? OH NOES!