I was fairly indifferent about the whole subscription thing. I think its about as ridiculous as paying for avatar clothing, but if there is demand then I am in no position to really criticize the supply. Especially if it is done under a sort of "we don't want to split the userbase" approach. 
I don't even care about how the whole bombcast things spits upon that approach, but only because I don't listen to the bombcast. 
 
But the medals just take this way too far. You see, I have this over-stylized image (and I guess I am not the only one) of a very certain giant bomb user, the kind of user that puts the opinion of any of this site's creators above all else in the world, the user whose idea of heaven is to get his e-mail read on the bombcast, the user who says "anime is for jerks" and "peter molyneux's ball" with a nudge-nudge and a smug grin whenever there is a possibility to do so. Naturally, you want to punch this hypothetical  user in the face. 
But that's okay because no one forces me to pay attention to the outbreaks of this phenomenon.
 
But these goddamn medals, however justified this may be, conjur up the image of just this... person over whoever wears them. "You are now reading a post or a topic by a person who is willing to spend money on a subscription model of giantbomb.com". That's like having a marker on everyone's avatar whether they vote republican or democrat. I don't want to know. :( I prefer not knowing because I like approaching people without that kind of negative prejudice. :( Why would you introduce a huge visual indicator not only of difference, but of a sense of superiority onto a part of the userbase in a discussion board that should not put an emphasis on competition? 
 
tl;dr: Are you that desparate for subscribers and that ignorant of the climate of discussion by stigmatising parts of the userbase that you feel you need to put a huge, obnoxious medal icon(!) over every paying member's avatar?