Preview for WoW #20 is up here http://www.dccomics.com/media/excerpts/11949_x.pdf

Means the issue is due this upcoming Wed.

Would be cool if they gave Gilneas the Isle of Quel'Danas treatment, or made it the starting area for a new race(Worgen anyone?)

If a new playable race came out of Gilneas I would expect it to be the Naga considering the most recent official lore on Gilneas was speculating that the Naga took it over. The Worgen in Gilneas bit was complete speculation with no backing that was made up when people were speculating the new alliance race.

The problem is that the Naga are pretty much aligned with the Old Gods. Retconning them as either member of the Alliance or the Horde requires a major effort, beyond the "lo, we're a splinter faction dissatisfied with our mighty Queen, may she dissolve in holy water. Got room for us?". I hope Chris Metzen learned his lesson with the Eredar fiasco.

Whereas the Worgren are a lot more neutral (in terms of "we rip out the throat of anyone equally") regarding the greater cosmic forces around Azeroth. Even the Grizzly Hills stint doesn't have any real feel of the Worgren being Scourge allies, despite Arthas getting their daddy raised from the dead.

Of course, you need a second and opposite race. I'll let the Alliance have Worgren if the Horde gets Pandarens . A good departure from the formulaic would be, of course, the next race being able to pick both sides. But that raises a lot of problems in terms of gameplay (how come alliance Worgren can't understand a thing Horde Worgren say?) so I think it's pretty much out of the question.

**edit after the fact** Another possibility, and an very new one would be a subrace. You pick a normal race, but with Worgren trait. Instead of the normal racials, you get the Worgren racial, which lets you shapeshift into a Worgren, with an intrinsic buff. That lets you be a normal member of your faction, but both can get Worgren. That's idle speculation, though. Ahhh, the wait till August, when (hopefully) the next expansion will be revealed in all its glory.

Blizzard seems to like the whole splinter faction bit so a splinter faction of Naga wouldn't be too far fetched. Most things with Worgen just seem to describe them as evil creatures that have fun in terrorizing and destroying anything so them joining either faction seems just as unlikely. The Worgen we see in Northrend are all transformed humans and none of them seem to be true Worgen and I have the feeling we will see the Worgen and maybe even Arugal again in Icecrown Citadel (the NPC did mention she doubted it was the last we would see him).

I doubt we will ever see Pandaren added since it was confirmed that China was the reason why they couldn't be added into TBC. I could see them adding a faction of Horde friendly Goblins though considering how many already help the Horde.

First time post so here it goes.

You must remember Sargeras handed it's avatar a fraction of his power. Both times when he was defeated, correct?

A faction of Horde friendly goblins just seems to work to me even if Undermine is the Maelstrom expansion 'capital'. It wouldn't really be any different than the draenei/blood elves in Shattrath and we know there are a lot of different factions within the goblin race. A race being displaced by the Naga joining either faction could work.

Merman from the Masters of the Universe.... perhaps an aquatic race similar to him. Because they would have to be able to transverse over land easily enough.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I'm of the mind that we won't see another race added to either side.

1) From what I understand, Goblins were initially planned as a playable race, but then the designers loved the idea of them profiting from the war so much and changed their minds. I think I remember a blue statement making it clear that goblins would never be a playable race. Of course, anything can get overturned if the design calls for it -- but in this case, I just don't see any goblin intentionally cutting off their access to the other side by picking one.

2) With how many changes Blizzard is making to the old world, I think they recognize that the future of the game is new content. BC showed that while getting a new race meant we got new starting areas, Blood Elves were still in Silverpine and Draenei were still in Ashenvale, going through mostly the same content everybody went through already as level 20+ characters. I don't think the design is going to ask for another experience like that unless the expansion involves a whole new set of leveling zones from 20-58. While that's not outside the realm of possibility, it would aggravate the top-level population that want new raiding content at level 90.

3) And yes, mechanically the language barrier is completely artificial, and for all intents and purposes they could add in a neutral race, but why? Making one starting area instead of two would come across as cheating, I think, and it still doesn't resolve the problem of having to level up through the old world.

4) I'm so happy no one has mentioned High Elves so far. ^_^

High Elves are everything short of playable to the Alliance right now. They are a major storyline faction and a key player in the Alliance push into Northrend -- half of the Alliance base in Dragonblight is all Silvermoon-esque architecture. I'm sure this is for storyline reasons that are corroborated by whatever is happening in the comics and so forth but it's kind of weird. Apparently you can't have an Alliance without the high elves.

I don't think people would be aggravated by new sub level cap zones. But it isn't entirely reasonable to expect a whole new 1-58 set of zones. The other option is to have the new race zone as an accelerated starting zone where quests reward mode and after finishing the two zones you're 30 instead of 20 or something. Also I think them adding one new zone in the 45-55 range would be pretty awesome as that seems to be the slow down period for those of us that level wtihout RAF. DWM revamp I loved so they could maybe just do that or add a new zone wherever the new expansion is set.

That is assuming there even is new races, maybe it will be a new hero class or maybe it will be neither. I'd prefer a complete overhaul of all races graphics and animations than a new race personally, as well as maybe making all new armour look like armour instead of painted on skin like some of the NPC's have started getting.

As for what races, I think there's a lot of potential for some sort of Furbolg faction. Maybe using the Gurloc excuse that they had their evolution accelerated and lost some bulk so armour wouldn't look ridiculous on them. Could fit them in either faction but I think Horde would fit better. I know they bent the lore a lot to let Dranei into the Alliance given the humans racisim but I can't see them accepting furry beat men wandering around Stormwind. But it depends how far they want to stretch it I guess. Naga would be a no for me just from the model limitations. Worgen possible but the lore pretty much points to them being mindless bloodthirsty savages from a planet in perpetual war. Murlocs/Gurlocs same as Naga, too difficult modelwise. Goblins, I hope not.

Other options would that it would not be a fully fledged new race as such but maybe the Frostborn and Taunka become available to play. Taunka could be based out of Dragonblight and starting zones could be caves in Azjol Nerub (yes I'm determined this comes to the game still!) and Frostborn could have some cave in Storm Peaks that they breached part of a titan facility and are battling rogue YS controlled machines.

Adding a new race or new class is many times the work of adding new leveling area (Outland/Northrend) and dungeons. I think we'd all be a lot better off if they put all that time and effort into having better and more polished content to play 80-90 and at 90.