OK, something has been bugging me since the end of season 4/start of season 5. It relates to the shift in the 'tone' of the campaign. Some of this shift in tone that I see/sense is from messages from this board, but I have also seen it some in play at the table, as well.
Within the first three seasons in particular, the way the faction missions were set up, and their relative emphasis in scenarios, seemed to encourage characters who had (for whatever reason) strong background ties to a particular faction, and happened to work for the Pathfinder Society. The recent changes, both in the relative de-emphasis of faction missions (first, dropping from two faction related missions to one faction related mission + one mission tied to suceeding at the main Pathfinder mission, then to this season's 'sometimes your faction has a mission in the scenario, sometime not'), and the consistent voicing of, "You're supposed to be loyal Pathfinders first! Get out there and explore, cooperate and report, damn your eyes!" have kind of, as the kids these days say, 'harshed my buzz'.
I guess my issue (and it just may be MY ISSUE, sort of why I'm posting this, to see if anyone else gets the same feelings), is that, I already 'get' to roleplay working for faceless masters with potentially questionable/selfish motivations in a large, multi-leveled organization, where having outside agendas (i.e. 'a life') or questioning the 'why' we do what we do is strongly discouraged. I call this exercise, 'my job'. I don't expect PFS to 'fix' the issues I have with 'working for the man', but I also would like it to provide an escape from doing so. In other words, in my experience and opinion, PFS used to encourage interesting, politically-motivated character backgrounds and roleplay. Now it seems to encourage semi-faceless Pathfinder 'agents' who are out to carry out the Decimvirate's wishes in the hopes they will be promoted within the heirarchy. Are we becoming the NPC's?
Comments? Rejoinders? Rotten Fruit?