Knowing an economic principle and understanding inflation are two completely different things, so that is something you need to work on, no offense.
The reality is that inflation is affected by a number of things, the most important of which is money supply versus total real value in the economy. In the real world, increased consumer spending drives a demand for increased money supply, which in turn drives inflation. But it can also be offset by an increase in the size of the economy.
In simple terms, inflation happens when the amount of money available grows faster than the amount of things available to spend that money on. In WoW it is about the amount of goods and services players are able to trade vs the amount of gold in the economy. The amount of spending is actually irrelevant if those two things remain in balance. Yes, spending does increase inflation. But supplying goods/services to the market decreases inflation. And if you want to assess the nett effect of tokens on inflation, you need to consider its effect on both sides of that equation - which is why your argument is fatally flawed.
As you admit, they were referring to illicit goldseller activity. Those guys have a massive negative effect on the WoW economy, not just inflation, but the economy as a whole, and the way in which regular players get to participate in the economy.
Tokens do not have the same effect at all, because unlike goldseller activity, tokens don't in and of themselves generate new gold.
I explained why you're wrong, so you just tell me I am actually wrong without any warrant or backing? Brilliant dude. Just brilliant.
I mean, seriously, you're the one asserting, without backing or warrants, this idea that everyone who buys tokens was just sitting on piles of gold that they would never have spent. I gave you an example of how I (a gold seller/token buyer) disprove this supposed 'rule' you imagine to be true. I even explained why it makes little or no sense for WoW scrooges to sit on gold indefinitely (because inflation kills those savings). But you're clearly not really interested in listening, only in lecturing - on a subject you're clearly quite inept at. lol
I made no such suggestion. What I did say is that the token doesn't allow you to obtain
cash. I even bolded it to emphasize the fact that having monetary value is not the same as getting cold, hard cash in hand. To put it in simple terms, WoW tokens cannot put me in a better financial position than simply not buying stuff (including WoW game time) from the Blizzard shop.
So you're being dishonest...again. If you can't argue against what I am actually saying, and have to invent words to attribute to me, that just demonstrates how useless your argument is.
Firstly, if you're going to claim that there is evidence online, then bloody well cite it. Because yeah there is a lot of stuff online that talks about the effect of WoW tokens on inflation. All I had to do was google "wow token inflation", and this was the first hit I got:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGayXFQ5HW4
Sums it up pretty nicely if you ask me, well reasoned, logical, rational. Except it supports what I have been saying (He also makes a comment about how it is common myth that tokens cause inflation)
And while I have little doubt that if you're looking for an opinion piece online to support your argument, you'll have little trouble finding it, your assertion that the author is smarter than you or I is likely to be dubious. I mean you're welcome to speak for yourself, but you don't know me. I mean I have no qualms on deferring my opinion to an actual qualified expert on the subjects of both economics and WoW (the handful of them who exist) but honestly, the average person writing an internet piece on this, at best, a journalist and a gamer (or more likely just a hack with a modicum of writing ability), not a rocket scientist. Lol.