Professional Farmers

[Gort]

The mobs drop 10g 80s (which would not otherwise be in the economy).  They also drop ... runecloth?  blue items?  occasional purple items?  which would not otherwise be in the economy (and most likely get more than 10g 80s at AH). 

so the overall effect is what?  not extra gold chasing the same number of items.  It's extra gold chasing a larger number of *certain* items.  Both gold and gold sinks are created.  I couldn't say really whether the gold outweighs the gold sinks or not, given that there's also some gold from vendor trash generated...

Already acknowledged the mathematical error :) I'd argue your logic though. The items in question will move existing gold around it's true, but the extra numbers of those items from the farming of those NPCs distort the available supply. Given drop rates and cash dropped from those kinds of NPCs, I'd like to see the relative value of the average farmer's drops. Does the value of green/blue/purple items outweigh the cash farmed over time?

As for gold sinks, apart from repair to gear what gold sinks do they have? Maybe gryphon rides from IF (assuming they're hearthed there) and poisons for the rogues, arrows for the hunters. Simply killing all those NPCs pours more gold into the economy at a steady rate, and the extra items just depress values on the AH for those truly lucky players who get an epic World Drop and find that there are 3 already up for sale at low prices.

so if that gold goes largely to to *buying* the same items dropped, then overall you might see a slight deflation relative to certain items (which can drop in Tyr's Hand) and a slight inflation relative to other items (which don't drop in Tyr's Hand.)

That gold will be sold via IGE or some other site and then recirculate, but until it's bought with real money then it's sitting in the farmer-controller's bank. It's fresh money that's stockpiled to sell for RL currency and the overall supply on the server DOES increase.

so it's good for casuals farming areas and selling items that farmers dont farm.  Bad for casuals buying items that farmers dont farm.  Good for casuals buying items that farmers do farm.  Bad for casuals buying items that farmers don't farm.

anyhow it's not blatantly a horrible ruin to the economy.  It would seem to be introducing some weirdness in pricings though.

The distortion is there, as are the other annoyances of the farmer. The farmer is on a strict target and a lot of the courtesy that most real players display simply isn't there. The rogue that trains mobs on you and vanishes in the hope you'll die or at least get aggro so they can hijack the RTV you found, the farmer that follows you round the insect lairs in Silithus so they can mine while you're in combat.

A lot of "casuals" want the feeling of having achieved something themselves, but look at Mirajj's epic accomplishment against a backdrop of farmers making an absolute nightmare of themselves in Winterfall village, farming for greens and most likely firewater (which sells for 1g each usually). Weizhang and Yuzi made the Winterspring Frostsabre quests hell for a dedicated bunch of players who just wanted to complete the ultimate rep grind.

i can't imagine any gold farmers farming electro-lanterns.  Casuals must've been farming electro-lanterns and Blizzard (rightly) nerfed the price (wrongly) too much.  They should just figure out a good average salary (money per time) for each char level and do the math from there.

Before my time, I'll let those with more experience comment on that.