[Muirdach]

For my part, I just ignore them (publically, sometimes I swear to myself and wish they leave quickly). That's generally the attitude we take towards most things like this - very hands off and just observational for the most part, unless things really get out of hand. It probably helps that we don't have a lot of staff-player interaction like other games do, for example we don't have staff-played deities or much of any kind of "immortal on the ground" behaviour, if staff wish to play with mortals then they play a mortal, for the most part. Instead, we try to give players the tools to run things like that themselves, where possible. As most RP hogs seem to seek staff/imm attention for the most part, this helps to keep things quiet on that front.

Another reason is that there are always two sides to a coin, and people can spin the same event whichever way they prefer. It's easy for a disgruntled player to honestly believe that their RP was great and that the game staff are just jealous and/or wouldn't know good RP if it bit their collective noses off, or that they're being spied upon and kept down, etc. This can quickly spread through that individual's friends, clan and whatever else. So, while you might be totally in the right to coach/guide and are probably acting for the greater good of the game, it isn't without its problems. Not to say that admins should just put the blinkers on and not care - but we watch and keep close tabs, and only intervene when it is truly necessary. Then I go and play rugby to take out any aggression.

That said, my formative first-year-and-a-bit of mudding was on Threshold, so at least to some degree Aristotle's way did stop me from becoming an RP hog.