I'm not entirely sold on leveling trade skills in World of Warcraft. By leveling up professions you can create armor, weapons, and goods that theoretically benefit your character. With a little luck, you can even make some money from your trade. It usually takes a major investment maximize your professions and get the goods that you want. In most cases I prefer to wait until I've reached the level cap to start professions.

There are two exceptions to this. Whenever I roll a character on a server that's new to me, I invest in skinning and mining and sell the materials for gold for my mount and equipment. I used to level fishing too. Until Blizzard added the aggressive mobs on the shore of Dustwallow Marsh, I would swim past the Mirefin Murlocs and fish among the turtles for loot that was much higher than my level. I don't usually level anything useful for my class until I've crossed through the Dark Portal.

I like Zymm's idea over on the forums-- he suggests that people who have been playing WoW for a while, or just "older" characters, should get some sort of special recognition or title as a WoW "old-schooler." Not just because I am a WoW old-schooler, but because it'd be nice of Blizzard to give out a little recognition for players and characters that have been active and playing for a while. I'm not saying that they should start handing out Epics just for standing around, but a special tabard or title would be kind of nice.

And there are other benefits, too. It'd be a quick and easy way of telling who the veterans are in-game-- as in, who should know what they're doing and who might not. Plus, our characters don't actually age, so while gear is some indication of where they're at in progression, it doesn't tell you who's been on for years and who just powerleveled to 70 in the past few months. Some common indicator of age would set a milestone for how long characters and players have been around.

Eyonix jokes about "Old School Zymm," but it's a good suggestion-- we should have some way of showing off how long both we and our characters have been around Azeroth.

I find it really interesting how class roles, originally created completely by Blizzard, have been given their own flavor by the people who play them. Take a main tank role, for instance-- sometimes it's the raidleader (although it doesn't have to be), but usually it's someone dedicated to the success of the raid, a person who likes getting their hands dirty, is super knowledgeable about both the bosses and their own gear, and both supports and benefits from (in the form of gold for repairs or first choice on equipment) the entire raid. The main tank (just like the top DPSer or the main healer) is a position created partially by Blizzard, and partially by the people who play it.

Donaven (quite randomly) calls today "Thank a Tank Day." Unfortunately, he himself is a tank, so the actual proclamation sounds more like whining about being a tank rather than a sincere thanks for a tank who knows what they're doing, but the thought is noble. Instead of just thanking tanks, how about we thank all players who take a role and fill it out to the best of their ability-- who take a job, whether it be grabbing aggro, laying down damage in the right places, or playing the whack-a-mole game of healing, and do it well and without question.

For all the QQing about PvP and all the crying about how Arena is unbalanced, the best times I have in this game are in PvE situations, where everyone is working together and doing what they're meant to, all the way until the boss' health reaches zero. The main tank plays a huge part in that, by standing where they need to stand, and laying down sunders when it counts. But when a raid is really working together, everyone does what's needed, and that's when it's really great. I'll thank everyone for that.