I Despise "Farming" For Gold

If you want to play with any non-meta setups and not be blasted to pieces and almost guaranteeing a loss for your team, you will have to move down a tier or two.
Apart from this, I mostly agree with you.

I hope I didn't come off as too confrontational, just wondering the opinions of others.

I also accept it for what it is, but no winder I was getting blasted to pieces from like levels 10-20 or so.

I sometimes play in lower tiers because I like it. It's fun to mix it up with light bots instead of slogging around with mediums and heavies all the time. I guess you could consider that "farming", since I usually do win top gold. Although not always by any stretch. Sometimes I get my butt handed to me on a platter. However, in my mind I don't engage in what I would consider "seal clubbing". To me, seal clubbing is intentionally gaming the matchmaking system by using equipment that is superior in every way to the competition and which the expected competition has virtually no way to counter (based on their equipment and experience). I intentionally limit myself to ag bots and weapons so as not to be too overpowering, so I'm basically using the same equipment that's available to the relative noobs that I'm usually playing against. I don't use the starter bot setups, but there's nothing I'm using that is out of reach from a player that is naturally at those tiers as part of their normal progression. If someone sees me in a Thunder Shutze or a Pinata Destrier, there's nothing from preventing them from saving up a bit of silver and getting themselves the same thing. Some may consider me to be drawing a fine line, and may call me a clubber. Oh, well...

I also think there'd be less seal clubbing if the game awarded more gold. If they went to a system of gold kind of like the way they award pumpkins or snowflakes, so that you can earn gold for progression no matter if you win or earn a top score, I think it would reduce the pressure for earning gold that drives people to club.

But I'm not holding my breath for this to happen, because it would also reduce the temptation to purchase gold with rm...

Agree with everything here... Clubbing sucks.

Dropping tiers can be fun, though. It is almost an entirely different game in HB and Last Stand. That is the only place I have ever used a Zenit or a Noricom. Only place I've used sniper weapons, gekkos, all molot or punisher bots, etc. Not to mention if your clan has a feeder clan that is made up of people lower than you and you want to squad with them. Or just squad with a friend who has just started and doesn't have the hanger you do. All that can be done without clubbing.

And, now, I think it will take more than Au payouts to change a clubber into a playah. Playah's can handle any prize, at any level, juggling the high quality with the low. Clubbers, dress up nice and shiny with expensive stuff, then go looking for younger prey that aren't hip to their wiles. There will always be clubbers, if possible, because to them, winning and conquering at any cost are all that matters, as long as that cost isn't actually becoming good. -might there be a double meaning here? ...maybe

(Note, I am not saying all Gepper clans are clubbers, as I know there are legitimate ones that can, and do, avoid the noob tier and focus on squad play in Silver. And I admit, that this can be extremely fun and team skill building... the fast pace game play and homogeneity of bots provides an almost altogether different game experience. Unfortunately, a Bronze tier player that encounters a clubbing clan is more common than a non clubbing Gepper, and so now the label is attached to any Geppers that clan together, no matter the tier.)

Fair enough, that is my experience, too, in a lot of games solo... but I am mostly referring to the ones that are looking for squad play against other clans, and I encourage those... because when WIKI clan is out steppin', there's a lot less MagGeppin'.

Like a lot of us, better learn to deal with it. Aint nothin new, and likely wont change.

I bought a Gepard when I first started, outfitted it with magnums down the line... Paired it with two Cossacks and a Destrier and won 10 gold 95 times out of a 100 ever since.

I was sure the mere act of using a single MagGep made me a clubbier; how could it not, when it's a one man army, ready to eat 10-15 of the enemies' Cossacks, Destriers, Schutzes, Golems and Pattons a match?

Then, rarely, I started running into 5 slot 2/7 or 1/8 MagGep hangars... And I realised what dedicated clubbing is.

In all honesty though, even using a single Gepard below High Bronze feels unfair towards opponents. I got another from a snowflake chest but it's really overkill most of the time so I'm moving to Silver proper now.

Can't understand why people play it for months with dedicated 5-man Gep hangars... The idea is sound obviously, but it's so overdone and even playing 1-2 gets boring after a while, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. It's a waste of gold to buy more than 1-2 and full 5 are only going to guarantee you a win in the rare, rare cases where you go against other similar players. So it's 3600-4800 gold that you invest into gold farming for a tiny win rate increase, meaning it would take thousands of matches for those additional overkill Geps to actually start turning the profit they were supposedly bought for. Doesn't make much sense if you're farming.

With all that... It's an amazing bot to pilot, it really spoils you. I love the speed and manoeuvrability, the weaving and dodging, all of it. Blazing fast, even when you're down to below 10k health you can still destroy a few full health mediums before they get you. It really makes you want to find a Silver/Gold equivalent bot when you start moving up, purely playstyle-wise.

Is the MM rebalancing already happening?
I had several matches where a 5-gep hanger guy dropped in, first bot got shredded, and then bailed the game after realizing he got pushed to low gold tier.

I like this setup quite a bit actually. Give a non-pay to win player a chance to compete with top level equipment. Getting maxxed out to compete in top gold will likely never happen for me but being at the top of high silver or whatever tier I can max equipment instead of always being outmatched. I prefer low bronze and high bronze to silver tiers simply because the match is much higher paced and much more fun. Silver is very lethargic and has a lot worse noobs in my experience.

Just my opinion, but If you play for gold instead of the win, you have turned a fun and competitive game into a boring and repetitive job.

Regarding unskilled Gold randoms, why not join a Gold Tier clan? I think that would also be make it easier to have fun in a supporting role to stronger teammates while your hangar matures.

But more importantly, if you find Silver play more enjoyable than Gold, why spend anything to rush out of it?

Alright, fair enough.

I think they see the problem. The issue is that they see a benefit that outweighs the cost of the problem -- increased revenues from Gepard sales as well as from whales responding to Gepards by spending more. As there isn't a profit-sharing plan for players, we don't see this benefit and probably never will.