An epiphany

[FireLance]

Players should never be under the false assumption that they run the game, they don't. Any DM knows that the countless hours spent preparing and tweaking one's campaign makes pale in comparison the time any individual player puts in. Most don't even want the job of DMing.

Agreed, players don't run the game, but as I mentioned in my previous post, the new edition closes the gap between player and DM so that it is easier for a player to take on the role of DM if he wanted to. I see this as a significant shift in the DM/player power balance. It's the power to say, "To Baator with this controlling, railroading, novelist wannabe DM. I'd have more fun running my own game with the rest of the group - and I can."

The real shift in power is not the ability to over-rule a DM in his own game. It's the ability to run your own game if you don't like what he is doing.