World of Warcraft: Trade Skills & Professions

GameSpy has put together a two-page article that details the recent trade skill changes that Blizzard has made to World of Warcraft. There are a few other topics of interest in the article as well, but the controversial change is the main subject:

The rationale behind the revamp was obvious as the management of an MMO’s economy is paramount for the long-term health of the game. As a result of player ability to hold an unlimited number of complementary professions, the game’s economy was in danger of inflation due to an oversupply of powerful items and raw materials. In just one example, virtually every player in the game pre-patch had acquired the Skinning and Leatherworking skills. This allowed players to get leather from kills and then turn that leather into high profit pieces of armor that could be sold at auction or traded to NPC vendors. The result was an incredible devaluation of leather items and absurdly wealthy players.