See, I don't think I could ever transform that way personally.
I spent a decade as a highly visible EVE player and the community will always stay at the front of my mind. I always want to keep roots there, because that's where I came from.
I think one of my biggest problems at CCP is that I tend to be too direct in defense of the community's point of view sometimes, and also sometimes I'm just too direct in general if I think something's a sh*t idea.
Do I i think there are some asshats among our players? Absolutely. There's asshats in every community - I'm one myself at times. I think we all have those moments, it's human nature. I stand by my statement that we have the most amazing community in online gaming. When I stop believing that is when I'll move on to do something else. I can't see that happening at this stage in my life.
I tend to have those moments of asshattery at the same time as our players do - when I feel like someone's going to do something bad for EVE. That's when the growling starts and when I get a bit too direct for my own good sometimes. Regardless though, I'll always put the health of EVE and the community first - that's kinda what you have to do in this role.
That said, if you were on the dev side I can totally appreciate feeling like you're at odds with your players - there's always a tradeoff between creating a healthy, sustainable game, and giving into the chaos that your customers want the game to be.
It's all about finding that balance man, I don't think I could ever get to the point where I held contempt for our players. In the end, I respect the fact that our pilots pay my salary, and I quite like having money at the end of the month.
Well, apart from /u/Jibrish - screw that guy <3