[Estarra]

My two reservations about farming/mining features are that: (1) it encourages hours of autobotting if the mechanics are too repetitive (plow, plow, plow, plant, plant, plant, harvest, harvest, harvest), and (2) if commodities are an important part of the gameworld, it can become burdensome to balance how many commodities are being produced (does the world really need 1 million units of grain?) and forces players to grind through the mechanics (see 1) in order to get these needed commodities.

In Lusternia, commodities are produced in villages. By performing commodity quests, you can increase production of some of these commodities. For example, you can catch chickens and take them to the chicken coop (for a gold/xp award) which also increases egg production in that village. Player organizations then compete over who controls those villages and thus the commodities that the villages produce. It works well for us!