Are you a recipe completist?
Earlier today I was perusing the official WoWforums, looking for any new info about our favorite game, when I noticed a particular post. Warla, the player in question, was announcing that they had collected all of the cookingrecipes in the game. At first glance, this might not seem like much of an accomplishment, but there are a lot of recipes that are more readily available to one faction or the other, such as Dig Rat Stew. Taking into consideration that Warla is on a PvP server and can't easily do a trade through the neutral auction house, this is actually quite a feat.
I'm not really a perfectionist when it comes to my professions (and I'm definitely not the type who would announce such accomplishments in a public forum), but I have known other people that were. One guy I know is a blacksmith and spent hours researching and tracking down every last pattern that was available to him. The same guy was making a point to complete every single available quest in the game too, so his blacksmithing goal wasn't really his loftiest.
Personally, I tend to be more utilitarian. If I can't use an item in some way, then I don't care about learning how to make it. Of course, I have a relatively broad definition of "use", which includes giving away items to friends, making money on the auction house or simply earning skill points. I've only rarely gone out of my way to pick up recipes, and only when I had a definite plan to use them.
How about you? Do you spend a lot of time and money tracking down rare recipes even if you'll never use them? Or are you more like me when it comes to such things?
