Quote Originally Posted by BobbinT View Post
You might need to try FF XI. You might get the picture from there as to how this might be necessary. ^^;

I'm not a huge fan either, but I kinda understand the purpose.
I played, and still play, Everquest. Specialization is much more likely to happen there, as you actually can level Fletching without leveling Smithing, Pottery, Baking and Brewing just to support it. Of course, the advantages to leveling all the general tradeskills in that game are enough to encourage just that after leveling up a few.

Specialization is not necessary. If it does anything at all, it forces people to level alts. It may be minor (Desynthing) enough not to, in which case it doesn't really do anything. Other than for the Zodiac, does anyone really need the stuff from other Desynth classes? Didn't think so. If it is major enough for alts, then yes, there will be some additional crafter/crafter interaction, until those alts are good enough to do whatever is needed without it.

Then you're back to where you started out : players able to do everything they need without being forced to rely on anyone else. Its what we have now (other than that minor Desynth) and its what we'll have after the alts are made.