Not very fond of the idea, but I also don't think this will be a big concern if we successfully design the world such that DM interaction is not required.

It's impossible to run a game the nature of A Game of Thrones without heavy DM interaction, as there has to be so much social interaction between PCs and their foils, and so many things going on "behind the scenes".  Plus, DM PCs are the best way to find out who the "actual" roleplayers are.

Some players, once they see a DM is on, will "turn-on" their RPing, while when a DM isn't on, they grind and take actions without IC reason or consideration.  A DM with a PC can go incognito and see who RPs all the time and who just wants to RP when DM is there.

You just don't allow DM PCs to be involved in any of their own plots/storylines, and adopt a policy of "don't ask, don't tell: and require DMs to use an unknown login for PCs to prevent favoritism, which even then can be easily spotted by the Admin and kaiboshed.

I agree that there needs to be DM interaction. I've played a lot of online multiplayer games, and the thing that sets some games apart is that interaction with staff. It gives the players the feeling that whatever they're involved in is more than a simple script designed to go off repeatedly. IMHO though, it's relatively easy to limit DM self stroking, just make it very clear in the server policies that it won't be tolerated, and then if DM's are caught meta-gaming, they lose their privileges.

tl;dr: To make a game great, you need DM interaction. To make a game suck balls, you need DM's stroking their own peen/ego.

However, I don't think this will be a problem here, as Cipher seems to be running a fairly tight ship and obviously has a clearly defined intent as is evidenced by the website, and the amount of time he spends online

Well Im not sure how well aged this post is, or if its dead or not. I am still gonna toss my 2cents into the pit.

I have had experience with DMing before on NWN2 servers. How they generically worked out is that the DM in question DMs in one aera such as the goldcloacks for example. While their chars work as a Red Priest, completely different from the what they DM and should there be a reason they two mix ether a aiding DM or one higher comes in and aids in the situation.