Mixed Thoughts on WoW Achievements

This past weekend was Easter, and the weather was beautiful, so I didn't spend too much time on WoW. When I did play, I took a break from running heroics for badges to obtain better gear. Instead, I worked on getting some achievements that I've been real close to getting, but didn't push myself for those final couple tasks to push me over the edge. Some achievements I earned included having 10 mounts, the knuckle sandwich achievement (450 unarmed skill), the scavenger achievement, 100 Dalaran cooking awards, the Dalaran fountain fishing one, and being able to represent Ironforge in the Argent Tournament. Oh, toss in a couple of the Noblegarden world event achievements as well for good measure.

Those were some of the simple achievements. I tend of focus ones that are a good fit for playing solo, but I'm starting to run out those. Currently, I have 53 out of 75 profession achievements. There are some I could do solo, such as completing the different cooking dailies in Outland, and the 100 cooking receipes (currently at 96). However, after that, what can I look forward to going after? Some of these other achievements, such as fishing up the turtle mount, are too time consuming for me.

Working on getting these achievements is almost akin to other players running heroics for their emblems to upgrade gear. Once you have your gear upgraded, what's next? I feel the same way about achievements. That system is one of the few reasons why I still log in and play. They allow me to play solo, but still allow me to feel I'm progressing my character. At this point, I could work on PvP achievements, but I don't care for PvP. There are dungeon ones I can earn I guess, but don't feel much of an urge to run vanilla and Burning Crusade instances for them.

There are definitely still other achievements I can earn. I have to ask myself though, am I willing to put in the time to get them? Do I even care enough at this point to try to go after them? Would all of this matter anyway in the inevitable future when WoW either doesn't exist, or matter as much any more?