I do agree there's a problem with the farming dance. I can't imagine this is what Inno ever envisioned GBG becoming. It's become a problem with the guilds that engage in it, as well as the guilds locked out because of it.
The root of the problem are the rewards and the people fighting to get those rewards. Between guilds, two guilds locking out the others means two guilds suck up most all the rewards. Worse, is that inside those guilds, the strongest members race to suck up the rewards before their weaker guild mates.
The biggest guilds get bigger at the expense of the smaller guilds, the biggest players get bigger at the expense of their smaller guild mates. More for me, less for thee. Greedy pigs feeding at the trough, for whom more than enough is never enough.
I shut down my city on R because of this, and just left my guild on W because of this. In both worlds, I was in guilds at the top doing the farming. In both guilds I was also at the top earning rewards. In both guilds, I had the capacity to push harder to earn even more. But to do that, I'll have to become a greedy bastard like the players I now loath. Becoming the player I hate, is something I'm not inclined to do.
I've had my fill of the strongest players refusing to touch any province with less than 4 Siege Camps for fear they'll take attrition and miss out on more rewards later in the day. I've had my fill of those same players, leaving the crap provinces for the smaller players, forcing those with the least capacity, to take the most attrition. I've had my fill of seeing the players who could use a hand up, get stomped down by their own guild mates.
On W, in the first round of GBG, we were in Silver League. We worked together to grow our capacity, our abilities, and our guild. We worked our way up through Gold, through Platinum, and finally to Diamond. Our first round in Diamond we were invited into a farming alliance. Once that happened all guild cooperation went out the window.
A mere 5 days in and the big boys now refused to touch any province with less than 4 Siege Camps. A mere 5 days in and the big boys were now complaining about the junior members not 'stepping up' to take the provinces with only 2 or 3 Siege Camps they now refused to touch. Provinces that needed to be taken to set the big boys up for the next provinces with 4 or more Siege Camps. A mere 5 days in and the big boys were now racing each other to fill the flags as fast as possible, lest another guild mate get the rewards first.
Now there's no going back. Pandora is out of the box, and reeking her havoc. Havoc I want no part of.
I'm not sure what this means for me moving forward. For now, it means taking a break from the game to reassess. To me, GBG is irreparably broken, for me GBG has broken the game. This behavior has sucked out all the joy and left me filled with angst. With this now the game, for me, it's likely time to move on.
As a free to play player, my leaving has no financial impact on Inno. Good riddance from their perspective, I'm sure. For me, with no financial investment in the game, the only loss is the time invested, time already lost anyway. Time that moving forward can certainly be invested in more fulfilling activities, activities that give me joy.
I'll give it a few weeks to see how I feel then. Either continue under a broken system, or delete my cities and move on. I'm still on the fence, we'll see.