I actually did stop playing for a couple of rounds and just ran a fodder country to bump numbers on the alliance server, or ran a crappy all-x netting country in a same tag under an assumed name. I found it doesn't make a difference. I can play, I can not play, I can hide where I play, I can leave to another country and barely log in... some people will still complain but the vast majority (like 3900 of 4000ish accounts :p) don't care at all no matter what I do.

While I can't speak for the other admins, my motivation behind making this game was to help rebuild a great community, not so that I could run the game how I pleased. It makes me happy that something I helped build brings happiness (hopefully) to a couple of thousand people everyday. It's a way to positively impact a lot of people's lives around the globe. From the thankyou messages we often get (especially during the first year), I consider being able to positively impact people to be the best thing about being an admin.

If you have a query about people abusing their access, please bring it to my attention. If it's about me, please bring it to qz or slag's attention. For all the bullfluff threads like this about admins playing, no one ever brings any evidence of admins or mods doing anything wrong with their access. I know I'm not doing anything sketchy with my access, and until someone brings me evidence that others are, I'm going to trust the guys who have a vested interest in NOT being corrupt to remain that way.

To that end, if the admins playing on the Alliance server is that difficult for you to deal with, there's 5 other servers where most of us don't have time to play. Maybe give those a try :)