Given the new phasing technology, I could see them really taking liberties with it for the purpose of a CoT expansion.

I just can't see it as being a high priority at this point, with so much in the present world left to flesh out.

Not sure why my Blood Elf turns into a Human, instead of a High Elf, in CoT: Stratholme.

Green eyes?

As entertaining as the idea of visiting past lore can be, I think Blizzard's focus for WoW should be on where the Warcraft universe is headed, not where it has been.

Which is why'd I'd expect it to turn into a High Elf (blue eyes), instead of going to Human outright. High Elves were known back in Arthas' day.

I am merely stating a personal preference. As the saying goes, your mileage may vary.

Blizzard has arguably created the greatest game in the history of computer games with WoW. With the phasing technology they will introduce in WotLK, they have a tremendous opportunity to break free of the "static world" constraints that have thus far hobbled storytelling in MMO titles. With the amount of resources at their disposal, the sky is literally the limit.

Using such a platform to retread ground that has been well-established in previous titles is, to paraphrase J. Michael Straczynski, somewhat analagous to keeping a Porsche in the garage for fear of scratching the finish. Blizzard can blow the doors off the genre here; why play it safe?

I think one of the major issues with introducing new present day content as opposed to Caverns of Time content is that the Warcraft world has some ridiculously complex lore. This wouldn't be too much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that so much of this lore is pretty crucial storyline stuff. Furthermore, a lot of this has only been touched upon incredibly briefly via books and other media and throw away lines and quest text. Piling on more new events draws the franchise ever closer to reaching a point at which it is just suffocates in it's own complexity. Trying to explain who Nefarion was to my girlfriend took nearly ten minutes because I ended up having to go all the way back to explaining who the Titans were all the way to the War of the Ancients.

The other thing is that the majority of WoW players don't even know any of this stuff. My friend has logged over three months of play time on a single character and he had no idea where the blood elves came from, or what the dragon aspects were. He only knew how the orcs even got to Azeroth from running Black Morass. And this guy reads the quest text! I think focusing a lot more on what has happened in the past would really benefit Blizzard, especially after WotLK where they'll exhaust every obvious possibility (Illidan and Arthas). If they make the next expansion CoT based then they can afford to dig a bit deeper into their established lore, since past lore events will be fresh in player's minds, and it will become much easier for them to understand what's happening and why they're doing what they're doing.

That's hardly the case. High Elves use the exact same model as Blood Elves, only their eyes glow blue instead of green... just look at some NPCs like Vereesa Windrunner in Dalaran or the High Elf mobs in the Hinterlands. There are still some mobs around using the old (pre BC) High Elf models which indeed has other animations (it was based on the Night Elve model), for example some of the mobs in Blasted Lands, but those seem to be oversights.

The requirement for having emotes isn't exactly what's needed for a race model to be playable. Models aren't completed without their animations and Blood Elves have High Elves practically the same model with the exception that high elves have blue eyes, hence they have the same animations.

As a proof, the Twin Emperors used Night Elf Male animations, so they were effectively reskinned night elf males. You could have them dance with WoW Model Viewer if you wanted to. So a model not beign playable doesn't really determine what you can have a model do or vice versa.

You are both quick to react and vociferous in your assessment that playable high elves would just be blood elves with different eyes. However, it is entirely possible that Blizzard do not want a high elf to melee like a blood elf, cast like a blood elf or moreover sing 'hot like me'.

I disagree that examples of NPCs, whether or not they can dance in the model viewer, can really offer much insight into whether Blizzard would or should consider playable high elves appropriate in CoT:Strat as recoloured blood elves.

I don't see the reasoning behind this. Human players cast the same way as NPC's do. Coincidentally, High Elf mobs cast the same way as Blood Elf players do. So why should there be any difference? Lorewise, High Elves and Blood Elves are physiologically the same, except for the green eyes. Of course, non-visual stuff such as voice emotes and jokes are different. They wouldn't talk about "wearing magic addiction patch" or something. But they would look the same (as they currently do).