I wanted to basically copy/paste my suggestion ticket I just put in here, and let others give their thoughts. I am wanting to make sure I am not totally alone in thinking this. I'd like to preface this by saying that I am not whining, in fact I will be maxing this skill in the next few days and hardly put all my time into it since it was released. I haven't been "burnt" by this skill, I am just wanting to comment on a general trend with trade skills. This is roughly what my ticket said:

"Mushroom Farming:

I'm currently level 43 or so in it. I have looted some boxes of Mushrooms (not much) but they are giving like 100 xp, maybe 300 xp? Not much. There is a common trend in the trade skills to make us spam some recipe a few thousand times or wait a year to level it "normally". For mushroom farming I need 3210 xp for this level. I'd have to wait days (5-10 days?) to get 1 level and that is if I play every day (admittedly I do). Few will do this method, so we end up spamming substrates which
A. deletes those items from the market and
B. gives us way too much of a good thing."

I want to admit some things about how I play games and how I test/give feedback on them: I am definitely a hardcore player and play to min/max but I also find this fun. I started in May of this year and already have a lot of skills at 70+ (not bragging), many of my guildmates and friends in game who have played far longer do not have this many skills maxed. I am stating this to be clear that while I know the way I play is far from normal, I actually am giving feedback with the "normal" player in mind. I do not think there is a single thing that is "exceptional" about the way I play and I sometimes envy those who enjoy games in different ways, but this is in fact how I enjoy playing them. All that aside, I have been testing games for long enough to know not to expect all balance/gameplay decisions to be based on what the "hardcore" player wants.

I think too many craft skills involve long grinds that involve deleting items from the economy to speed it up. I think this is going to spin out of control in a "real" economy post launch. It is going to make items scarce that should be much more common. I will give more specific feedback in the future (plan to do a break down of most combat and craft skills well before launch both here in forums and some in email) but I was wondering if this is intentional. It seems like it indirectly forces us into wasting items to level a skill up.

Again no one forces anyone to play a certain way, but in general human beings have trends and many will play in a similar fashion. In addition, outside of those who don't max all skills lets look at a player who just REALLY want to max out mushroom farming and utilize it: again this guy is stuck in progress with the skill and has no "active" way to make progress.

To take a look at the effect this skill, and the method I and many others used to level, had on the economy just look at the vendors that sell organs, bones, etc.: there were thousands of these to be bought from NPC vendors now you might find a hundred in a whole day. This isn't good for the economy imo, but that is just my thoughts.