No one takes influence away from players.
Control (as assumed by Raleigh -- 4X) most likely won't be possible.
Whine all you want, but you just criticized devs for the first, because of the second. Look at the post you quoted. Consider that maybe... Oh, just maybe! You are the one in the wrong.
Some sort of influence through adventurous actions - possibly.
Control over cities and strategy-styled land-controlling - most likely no.
And if you think devs are paranoic, because they don't want to turn PS into a strategy game... well, that's your problem.
This is the context Raleigh spoke in and it isn't Planeshift.
Later the discussion changed both content and vocabulary wise to support previous statement (which logically isn't associated with what followed). And that my dear lady is to be considered a logical fallacy. Either Ignoratio elenchi or red herring.
A logical fallacy used to accuse others to commit logical fallacies, how ironic. Now you put words in my mouth to claim I want PS to become a strategy game.
Unlike what you want to imply, that link was referring to what I dreamed as the "greatest game idea if it was possible", not of what I want PlaneShift to become. In fact, if you pay attention to the rest of the thread, I support player control, yes, but on a
local level for things like business, small villages, private properties and so on,
not nation-wide government. If you think this kind of players control is bad, then guilds are next to useless In-character for anything but associations of friends and "helping newbies". I know adventures are an interesting element of any RPG, but it is not the only one. Having opportunities to people open business or settle villages won't make of PlaneShift a strategy game, and who said it must be strategy-style control? Think big, PlaneShift isn't as conflicting and brutal as other scenarios where adventures are much wider like for example the D&D Toril's Moonsea or Thay, and through businesses and limited land control other forms of challenges besides combat and "dungeon crawling" become possible.
Lastly, I don't think a MMORPG will ever be able to compete in the fun-factor and history(not the background Settings, but what happens to the characters, the plot line) with a great Single-player Computer RPG or oldschool PnP, due to the obvious fact that with smaller numbers of PCs, they can do much more interesting things while being realistic than with larger ones, where many times PCs are delegated to tasks usually filled by NPCs in other types of RPG( 1 player may be one who will become a great hero in the end of the plot, 4 could make a great adventuring party, but what about 200 or 1000?), unless it presents possibilities for the players to shape the world with their characters and to a certain extent, control some things through additions to the already existing things(New villages in uncivilized lands, new businesses, etc.) instead of modifications to the already existing(NPC and Settings present organizations, etc.). And what you desire is not only something that I fully disagree with, because adventuring in the same level of PnP or SP RPGs is impossible, but also something that certain guilds wouldn't like at all. Or would you find it realistic to have hundreds of different adventurers, instead of some adventurers and some people inside guilds with some small control over some things?
And I wasn't criticizing the devs with the first post, I was just pointing something to show that some people not only want to go too far, but also to achieve things without any effort at all, that's why I mentioned the "4X" first, because of course, a single character deciding the future of Yliakum is ridiculous(Only in 4X you already "RP" a great leader). In fact, now I think I should've used another link instead:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_of_the_United_States. Of course if this was the intention of this "secret meeting", as an IC kind of joke based on a nutcase type of character, like
this one, then it would be different, but still seems to be some kind of OOC joke... as I mentioned before but was swollen...
P.S.: Wait? "Polotics" and "porody"? I think I know who might be behind this joke... 
