Err, Goblins are vicious fighters. Just because they're street smart and business savvy doesn't mean they don't fight. The Trade Princes have huge goblin armies out in the South Seas that have to deal with the various pirate groups. Like Gnomes, Goblins are very organized, and very intelligent, underestimating Goblins would be a mistake.

Ah, yes... Booty Bay Bruisers.... I'll never laugh at a goblin's fighting prowess ever again Bloodsail Rep grinders know what I mean

Still, I did enjoy the idea of a mercenary race, although there's way too much stuff they'd need to take into account before that ever happens. And considering how long it takes Blizz to make a single massive overhaul of any given mechanic, implementing this would probably push the release date for the next expansion to way beyone the 'one expansion a year' quota.

What if the creation of the paid faction change was done in preparations for a race both factions could use. I don't mean a race that can swap factions any time they please, but more along the lines of you choose your faction at the start, but both factions have access to the race.

That makes sense, but we'd have to see a lot of other preparations made simultaneously before that could happen. Again, this is an appealing concept, even if I'm still skeptical about it. BUT this does put things into a bit of context if I understand what you're trying to say.

Counterpoint: Norwegian death bands, Eric from True Blood.

Give those dudes pointy ears and they look like belfs. Furthermore, I submit to you that the only thing more brutal then an orc with Skull armor and a giant mace is a green eyed blonde bombshell in a tight leather suit with skull armor and a giant mace.

Art development time is probably the crux of the argument with regards to all the cool features we want. I refuse to believe the Colosseum raid started with dev's sitting around a table thinking "What would be really cool?" but rather dev's sitting around the table thinking "what can we pull off in six months for as little resources as possible" (Answer: A raid with one room, no trash, and reused boss models.)

This makes much sense if you take PVP realms into account. As interesting as making the choice through in-game would be, people in PVP realms would be unable to have the choice of Faction either-or due to the PVP server mechanics. Unless they change the faction restriction this issue kills the possibility of choose sides in-game.

Blizzard can always change this however, since set in stone rules like no pve to pvp transfers have vanished and faction changes are incoming.

You guys are assuming that the only way Goblins could join either faction is as a neutral faction, because that's what they're known for.

Think outside the box, assuming the next expansion takes place in the Maelstrom, perhaps the Goblins suffer some cataclysm that FORCES them or one of the Trade Princes specifically to ally themselves to one faction or the other.

Some people were mentioning these Goblin Trade Princes, so they're like different 'clans' of goblins all working for the Steamwheedle Cartel?
So I imagine that one such 'Prince' and his underlings is working for the horde for some reason, debt or something and building their zeps, catapaults, teaching the orcs etc.
And other 'princes' work purely for the Cartel and themselves...

They are the obvious counterpoint to gnomes (shudder) and Blizzard has already shown their love of balancing race choice amongst factions claiming Dranei were so Alliance got a bruiser race like Tauren, and Blood Elves so Horde got a camp and pretty race that they could all laugh at, like Night Elves/Humans. Whilst gnomes disgust me from both lore stand point and in game, Goblins for Horde are their obvious answer. Small race, good with mechanical/engineering stuff, and less magical prowess but more fight. I could imagine Warrior/Rogue/ Hunter as classes and possibly Shaman though I guess that is a stretch, and I guess DK’s as well.

The other thing to consider though is if there are new races, it is a strong possibility Blizzard wants them to at least add one new race to either Druid or the old opposite faction class. I can’t really see Goblin Druids or Goblin Paladins, so maybe not those.

For a new race imagine something like this:
After the sundering and Azshara’s pact with the Old God(s), her Highbourne followed her loyally. They began to rebuild Azshara’s palace and the surrounding area into Nazjantar. After a few hundred years as the transformations slowly changed them towards Naga, a group of them realised the error in their ways as they gazed upon their grotesque reflections, gills, fins and webbed hands and forsook Azshara and the Old God(s). Escaping during the night (or whatever passes for that on the ocean floor) they escaped South towards the Undermine and set up a new home hidden in a reef, rediscovering their druidic roots and serving to tend the ocean floor’s plant and animal life from the spreading corruption.

Befriending a nearby troll tribe, the Zandalar, they aided each other in times of need over the next few thousand years, and slowly took on the tribes Shamanistic ways to better serve nature and keep the balance of the elements deep within the ocean.
OR
After an Alliance transport was destroyed before the second war, they managed to save a handful of the survivors and take them to dry land. They spent the rest of their days living with them and among them was a prominent Paladin of the time, who taught them the way of the light. After already having thrown off the shackles of an Old God they took to the light easily and became efficient Paladins with their own unique form of worship.

They managed to mask their presence over thousands of years by staying away from Azshara and the other Naga, focusing on stealth and deception, their entire city was hidden in a deep ravine with a seemingly impenetrable layer of reef and marine life grown by the Druids. The recent events of Azshara had forced their small civilisation up to the surface which alerted the Naga to their existence. In addition the Druids of their clan were dismayed at the catastrophic damage Azshara had caused the marine life of the ocean and the Emerald Dream and vowed to destroy Azshara or die trying.

Now whether that goes against what Metzen said about any new races being more recognised as existing in the world I don’t know, in a way they are a cross between Night Elf and Naga, the halfway point of the transformation. But they would be heavily linked in with the story line, just like Dranei/Blood Elf were with TBC story line and DKs with WotLK. They’d obviously fit in better with the alliance being ex-night elves and all. Adding another shaman/Druid race would be good for choice as well.

I guess we’ll find out in 4 weeks time at Blizzcon, but given what they’ve said before about each expansion having to have a flashy new thing like a new race or new class, I’m curious to see which it will be. A new profession isn’t going to cut it, as someone said before the two previous new professions were only able to fit in the first place by creating clumsy niches for them, though sockets were a better implementation than Glyphs. I know people joked about Woodworking/Lumberjacking as new crafting/gathering profs but a sea expansion seems to go against that as you don’t get many trees on the ocean floor, even if it is freshly raised up.

This could be a stretch, but has anyone else noticed the 'stained glass' images on the way to Vezax? Some of them look like Mer-folk to me. Perhaps this is a tie in to the next expansion, and possibly new races. (Not necessarily new player races) It looks like there is a 'traditional' mermaid/merman, as well as a human torso with an octopus lower section.

You missed Flight Form/Epic Flight Form, which also varies between the factions.