A nice metaphor

Over at a RPG Board I frequent (RPGnet) a discussion about traditional GM sytles (GM creates the world, players play) vs the new Nar/Indie approach (GM and Players share creative control of the world, down to plots and stories) has been going on.

Now I tend the traditionalist view, and in response to comments about GMs abusing their power (which does happen, I will admit) the following was posted (reposted by permission):

To use a gastronomic analogy: to some people, GMing a game is like cooking somebody a meal. They get to choose how they eat it, whether they skip a course or have an extra helping of dessert, but ultimately it's the GM's creation.

To take this analogy further: if you cook a meal for somebody, and they don't like it, that isn't really your fault. Even if you cook a meal for somebody and it's really cruddy, that's just a question of your skill as a cook, nobody is going to complain about the fact that you did the cooking.

To these people, the idea of a GM "abusing" his power is nonsensical (as nonsensical, indeed, as the idea of a chef abusing his power by making you a starter you don't like). The GM is empowered to do whatever it takes to create a good game, if the GM makes a bad call, well that's the metaphorical equivalent of letting the cupcakes go flat.