Are Pandaren a Gateway to New Neutral Race Options?

[Jeremiah]

With Mists of Pandaria, Pandaren will be World of Warcraft's first race that has the ability to select which faction they associate with. Not only does this blow the popular silhouette theory out of the water completely (in addition to transmogrification), but it means that Blizzard has opened the floodgates to more future races who can associate with either faction.

Since there are a good number of races in World of Warcraft represented by reputation factions associated with both the Alliance and the Horde, there are a lot of possibilities for future races who will, like the Pandaren, be given the option to fight for either the red or the blue. Fortunately for players, this means we'll be seeing a lot of interesting race options without heavy development costs like the Worgen, Blood Elves, Draenei, and Goblins. All of these races had their own individual starting zone experiences, and when one race is introduced for the Alliance the Horde must obviously also benefit from the presence of a new race under their banner. Blizzard essentially saves development costs and valuable time to focus on compelling endgame content by introducing only one race per expansion.

Player favorites on forums are Furbolgs, High Elves, Naga, Murlocs, Ethereals, and Tuskarr. I can't see the High Elves ever becoming a "neutral race", as they were exiled from Blood Elven society on the Horde, not to mention the fact that few High Elves have survived anyhow. It is possible that Blizzard could revisit Northrend or Outline storylines and introduce the Ethereals or Tuskarr, both of which are incredibly popular in forum discussions about future race ideas.

It certainly makes the game more interesting when a player has a choice between Horde or Alliance for their character. Friends are usually divided between factions based on the aesthetic values of a certain race, so opening up both factions to a new race is a fantastic and profitable idea that Blizzard will not doubt exploit in the future as World of Warcraft is challenged by new faces in the MMO industry.

Which race would you like to see in World of Warcraft?