I can't have real friends, with real social interaction online? Interesting, since I have known people online, people whom I consider very close.. for upwards to 12 years now. Well all talk regularly, we all know each other by name, we all care about one another.. Hell, you can even have a face-to-face interaction if you want with a webcam, or throw in a mic if you want to bitch about text being impersonal. (It really isn't, unless you type like a wild howler monkey or something, and none of us do.)
My online friends have counted for quite a bit, and likewise they feel the same on the issue. Why anyone thinks a computer removes some of (or all) the humanity out of a person on the other end of communication is beyond me..
Uh.. Have you even looked at the list of musicians? Several of them are straight from the inhouse Nintendo staff, sure, but quite of few of them fall into the realms of "unexpected" I'd say.. You got big names from Square, Koanmi, Sega, etc.. Plus, let's not forget that the sheer number of composers here, and the fact that the majority of them are well known for producing very high quality stuff..
I'd say that this definitely qualifies itself as news.
To be honest, the 360 hasn't done very well, that's why. No one really CARES about it.. The original Xbox held much the same status, and it doesn't seem to be changing.. I'm not bad mouthing it, or I'm not trying to do so, I have nothing against the console itself.. it just isn't interesting to me, nor to anyone I know. And the majority of people I see that I don't know seem to follow this same trend, it just isn't very popular and as such.. it never gets mentioned.
Besides, this is Microsoft. $500-ish for their complete package is no shocker.. And anyway, there was plenty of discussion about their decision to make two packages back when it was new.. you know, almost a year ago? Regardless anyway, Sony's "basic version" costs as much (if not a tad more) than Microsoft's "complete" version.. there is obviously some concern there to those that don't examine the facts carefully. I mean, who wouldn't double take on that bit of knowledge and go "Hmm"?
$500 for a watered down version of the console. Also, do you honestly see $500 as reasonable even still? Please, you're the one acting defensive here.. Perhaps you'd qualify as a fanboy and not the poster you just replied to, eh? Besides.. You cannot forget to include tax into the price.. Once you factor THAT into things, you realize how ridiculous this is going to be to buy at launch.. Who the hell has this kind of money to spend on a video gaming console? Couldn't you sooner upgrade your PC? (Which would do a lot more for you in the long run..) Or buy BOTH the other consoles? (Which evens out to be about the same in cost, give or take a bit.) I mean hell, the Wii will allow most past Nintendo (and some Sega, and other stuff) consoles playable on it. That's a LOT of content in terms of gameplay, and yet.. the price is so much less.
You're buying it for the GAMES right? Not for the freaking NAME BRAND, right? Sheesh, this wouldn't even be a discussion if Sony weren't trying to push so much useless crap into the console. (Who CARES about Bluray this early on, for example? Does it merit the price THAT MUCH to us? Hell no, I don't think so..)
And $100 games sounds impossible? $70-80 games have been seen in the past already.. It is VERY possible, a scary reality perhaps that you don't want to consider, but still possible.. No though, I doubt it will come to this, but it wouldn't surprise me in the LEAST if it did happen..
I've actually had weird periods where.. I not only have had Deja Vu, but I recall something very vividly having happened before. So clearly in fact that this can be, that I'd swear it DID happen before, and I sometimes react very strangely in these situations due to my surprise\confusion.. Stranger still, these periods are years inbetween each other too.. I seem to remember things happening years ago, and suddenly the very same thing unfolds in the present day.. very accurately at that.
I wouldn't call it ESP though, usually this happens with very unimportant events.. I never seem to get this with anything big in my life, so it isn't as though I'm predicting the future.. And it is just as easy to assume that my mind is somehow fooling me into thinking I recall these things happening when I am not, but it is all too vivid and weird to outright dismiss. (Why would the mind get so jumbled to make you "think" you remember something happening before? Especially in such clarity as I do?) Lots of stuff doesn't add up here..
And both my mother and myself seem to have some odd sense about death in the family, though that isn't uncommon really. In fact, it is probably very common, which makes you wonder how people can so quickly sweep these things under the rug.. Theres definately something about the mind we haven't grasped fully yet.
I played it for three years too.. And it is crappy. The game is unforgiving, and just a repetitive pattern that keeps rolling on and on.. Yea, most games are just repetitive patterns - but XI doesn't even TRY to hide that fact, and that drives me crazy! I can't stand them, and it doesn't try to cover it up at all to make it seem more interesting.. Instead, it just gradually got more and more boring, and more and more frustrating.
I spent three years on a single character and never finished the game story.. Some might think that's impressive and that the game is truly vast when I say this, but it couldn't be more than the opposite.. The world is tiny, very tiny, and the story is not very long at all.. So what took me so long? Simple, the grinding in-between the tiny five minute bits of cut scenes (seriously) goes on for hours and hours on end.. And you know what? People ALWAYS go to the same places to level, and even the same places to camp mobs. (Yes, camp.. exploring and killing at the same time is unheard of in this game and you get laughed at if you even suggest it.) Zilart expansion was already in the package when it hit with the US, so most of us never even noticed the changes it made.. Promathia was lame as hell, they placed ridiculous difficulty bounders up to keep people from progressing in the story at a reasonable rate and released the content for it very slowly.. (Yes that's right, you bought an expansion that had virtually no story content at its release and had to wait months for them to release the next "chapter.")
Their latest attempt came after I quit of course, but from all I have heard and seen.. it is no better off. In fact, it might be worse.
That's all just a tip of the iceberg to the games problems too. SE hasn't even TRIED to adjust any major player concerns that I've seen.. Everything is incredibly static in the world and pretty much everything implemented stays that way forever. (No matter how terrible the implementation.) I can honestly only think of a couple of things they changed that are worth noting.. (Slight decrease in the first Promathia mission difficulty for one.) But all and all, they just left things as is and ignored everyone's cries. What did get changed was pretty irrelevant.. Meh, the game left me bitter as hell.. I was miserable playing it for awhile, but stuck around for friends.. That was a stupid mistake on my part, but they've mostly all quit too by now. (Takes some longer than others to realize how crappy the game is.. but it is DEFINATELY is crappy.)
Ironic you say this, since Warcraft III had Pandaren's and Panda mobs in it, eh? And yes, it was in China. Not to mention there is a "panda cub" pet in WoW right now.
This my friend, is the lamest and least thought out excuse anyone has ever some up with against them. And infact, if it wouldn't stop them from doing it anyway. Ever hear of censoring? Just retexture them to a different kind of bear in the Chinese version if it is such a problem. (Which it isn't.)
My opinion on the subject: Although the Draenei did enter through the Dark Portal and into Azeroth at one time, and there are NPC's of them on the Eastern Kingdoms already in the Swamp of Sorrows, the new "kingdom" for the Draenei would really only make sense in the Outland, since that is their place of origin and the fact that there really aren't enough of them on Azeroth right now.. (A small tribe at most.)
Problem with that is, the portal is sealed right now and supposedly will require a world event to open, thus if their kingdom is on the other side.. they are isolated until the server opens the gate.. Also, Outland has been portrayed as a high level area only, which further dispels the idea of the Draenei as the new Alliance race. The only way in fact, that the Draenei would work is if they placed them on Kalimdor somewhere, and as far as I have ever known, they've never been to Kalimdor.
Why Kalimdor? Look at how the kingdoms are currently situated.. Ironforge and Stormwind (Alliance) are on the Eastern Kingdoms; along with the Undercity (Horde). Orgrimmar and Thunderbluff (Horde) are on Kalimdor; along with Darnassus (Alliance). See how that is symmetrical? Well, the new Horde race (Blood Elves) are going to be on the Eastern Kingdom, which makes sense according to lore.. So where does that leave the new Alliance race? Right, Kalimdor.
Not much makes sense for Kalimdor as a race, though if you want -my- opinion, I would say Pandaren; since according to lore their kingdom exists somewhere on an isolated island around Kalimdor. Though another possibility could be the Furblog's, and as odd as that is, they would fit in perfectly with Kalimdor.
Pandaren's seem likely to me because they're both popular, and work with the lore. Yes, they are part of lore. They were originally (supposedly) a joke at one time for April's Fools. But they became officially integrated into the lore at some point and became an enigmatic race of Warcraft history. That aside though, they're very attuned with the earth, and they were at one time friends with the Night Elves (Alliance Race) and also buddies with the Dwarves (Alliance Race). They apparently bear no bad will with Humans or Gnomes (Alliance Races) either. Yet bear bad will towards Trolls and Undead; and apparently some issues with the Tauren as well (All Horde). They are unsure about the Orc's (Horde Race) though it is known that one of their kind previously helped them. (One time only.) It seems pretty clear that they are Alliance Friendly to me.
Also, they apparently hate magic abusers. And the Blood Elves are -big- magic addicts, who abuse magic.. Seems to make sense, eh?
Sure, it could be anything, but I betting Pandaren for now.. Which is just speculation based on the lore. Truth is though, the race will have to be on Kalimdor regardless of what it is. I am merely taking that into consideration, unlike so many others.
The actual code should -not- take up very much space after being compiled. Sure, complicated scripts often do take up space and such.. But that's not really his point, and not always compiled with the base code. The -base- code is not going to take up much space, and as he said it didn't matter anyway.
As for music, come on.. I have much more than 12 hours of music in loosely compressed MP3's on my computer here, and it only comes to so many GB.. 12 hours of music properly compressed would NOT take up very much space unless you were idiotic and lazy about it, leaving it completely uncompressed.
As for textures.. I personally loathe that textures alone are bloating up so much space. I like pretty graphics sure, everyone does, but I like playing a GAME more.. All this space being wasted on pretty graphics is disgusting.. And there really needs to be something done about it..
Now the models, you said it yourself.. They don't take up much space. Animation wasn't even something he "mentioned" you know? Animation shouldn't be a problem anyway in taking up a lot of space, everything properly compressed shouldn't end up so bloated..
As for FMV's, they're dying out, and for that I am glad.. They're a waste of space for showing something they could do ingame just as easily.
I can (almost) understand the claim about WoW, there are many times where you jump from high locations. (Albeit, a lot of times you just die from jumping so high.. and you'd think the kid would have taken the hint from that.)..but Warcraft III? I can't think of ANY jumping scenes of any kind from Warcraft III. Not one. And you can't really create your own either, it's a top-down view RTS, with no actual way "to" jump. So exactly how is this a reinactment of any kind?
It honestly sounds as if the kid was suicidal, and nothing else..
Why would you quit the game over a level cap increase? That's a ridiculous statement. Besides, have you forgotten about the Hero classes they're working on? They were suppose to be there at WoW release but were delayed and have since been revamped and continuously worked on from what I hear.
Ten more levels isn't something to quit over.. Not saying I want the cap raised, I actually don't care at all, I just find such statements so.. absurd.
I checked all the links, I don't see that anywhere attached to the article. If it's there it's buried pretty deep, and it doesn't related to the topic article. (They contradict each other.) So what is said there does not apply to this discussion.
Honestly though.. If he had just linked to that or noted the contradictions, that would have been one thing.. He just sounds to be blowing steam however.
Who said anything about a new class? The linked article said "no new classes" if you actually bothered to read it. Rumors don't count, and have nothing to do with the actual news. That said however, a new class for the Blood Elves would make sense in the way you described, Spellbreakers..
Haven't heard anything of a 100 man instance with Horde and Alliance cooperating either, again, you're pulling rumors from different sources entirely which does not pertain to this at all.
Cap is raised to 70, not 75 according to the article, again, did you read it?
The Emerald Dream is already in game data, and the Dragons guarding the portals leading there were already added.. The Outlands, well, I know for a fact Outlands objects are in data, not sure if the actual zone is or not.. But seriously, they're there already, why not add them? Northerend was not mentioned anywhere that I can see either. There isn't even a place for it on the current map.
And no, I don't think it's just fans wanting dreams to come true. Why wouldn't Blizzard add something that a majority of their fans keep asking for, keep wanting? They add it, they keep players playing.. They keep players playing and they keep making a profit, it's all win all around.
And yes, adding races is plausible. They could add a whole new faction other than Horde and Alliance too. Is it likely? Not at all, but plausible.
I think the real question, is why are Blood Elves mentioned as part of the Horde? They had previous ties to Alliance, why Horde now? They're more or less a Neutral race as it stands, so the shift to Horde is a little odd to me.. But I'm not complaining either. I want to see what Alliance gets first before I do that.
Well.. An expansion after a years time for an MMO isn't that surprising really. A year isn't a short time you know? And sure, it hasn't been out quite a year yet, but the expansion probably won't be done for awhile yet either.. So oh well? Might as well start early than late in the production of it.
Also, it is debatable that the subscription fee is not for content updates, but for maintaining the servers. And as many players should know, they do run into a fair share of troubles with that sometimes.. Sure, they most certainly pocket extra change from it too; considering the vast amount of people playing right now, but eh..
Anyways, the game is pretty big as is, the updates haven't been bad so far, and the ones upcoming look great too. I don't mind buying an expansion for new content myself, after all, making a profit off their work is incentive to.. you know, actually do the work.
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I can't have real friends, with real social interaction online? Interesting, since I have known people online, people whom I consider very close.. for upwards to 12 years now. Well all talk regularly, we all know each other by name, we all care about one another.. Hell, you can even have a face-to-face interaction if you want with a webcam, or throw in a mic if you want to bitch about text being impersonal. (It really isn't, unless you type like a wild howler monkey or something, and none of us do.)
My online friends have counted for quite a bit, and likewise they feel the same on the issue. Why anyone thinks a computer removes some of (or all) the humanity out of a person on the other end of communication is beyond me..
Uh.. Have you even looked at the list of musicians? Several of them are straight from the inhouse Nintendo staff, sure, but quite of few of them fall into the realms of "unexpected" I'd say.. You got big names from Square, Koanmi, Sega, etc.. Plus, let's not forget that the sheer number of composers here, and the fact that the majority of them are well known for producing very high quality stuff..
I'd say that this definitely qualifies itself as news.
To be honest, the 360 hasn't done very well, that's why. No one really CARES about it.. The original Xbox held much the same status, and it doesn't seem to be changing.. I'm not bad mouthing it, or I'm not trying to do so, I have nothing against the console itself.. it just isn't interesting to me, nor to anyone I know. And the majority of people I see that I don't know seem to follow this same trend, it just isn't very popular and as such.. it never gets mentioned.
Besides, this is Microsoft. $500-ish for their complete package is no shocker.. And anyway, there was plenty of discussion about their decision to make two packages back when it was new.. you know, almost a year ago? Regardless anyway, Sony's "basic version" costs as much (if not a tad more) than Microsoft's "complete" version.. there is obviously some concern there to those that don't examine the facts carefully. I mean, who wouldn't double take on that bit of knowledge and go "Hmm"?
$500 for a watered down version of the console. Also, do you honestly see $500 as reasonable even still? Please, you're the one acting defensive here.. Perhaps you'd qualify as a fanboy and not the poster you just replied to, eh? Besides.. You cannot forget to include tax into the price.. Once you factor THAT into things, you realize how ridiculous this is going to be to buy at launch.. Who the hell has this kind of money to spend on a video gaming console? Couldn't you sooner upgrade your PC? (Which would do a lot more for you in the long run..) Or buy BOTH the other consoles? (Which evens out to be about the same in cost, give or take a bit.) I mean hell, the Wii will allow most past Nintendo (and some Sega, and other stuff) consoles playable on it. That's a LOT of content in terms of gameplay, and yet.. the price is so much less.
You're buying it for the GAMES right? Not for the freaking NAME BRAND, right? Sheesh, this wouldn't even be a discussion if Sony weren't trying to push so much useless crap into the console. (Who CARES about Bluray this early on, for example? Does it merit the price THAT MUCH to us? Hell no, I don't think so..)
And $100 games sounds impossible? $70-80 games have been seen in the past already.. It is VERY possible, a scary reality perhaps that you don't want to consider, but still possible.. No though, I doubt it will come to this, but it wouldn't surprise me in the LEAST if it did happen..
I've actually had weird periods where.. I not only have had Deja Vu, but I recall something very vividly having happened before. So clearly in fact that this can be, that I'd swear it DID happen before, and I sometimes react very strangely in these situations due to my surprise\confusion.. Stranger still, these periods are years inbetween each other too.. I seem to remember things happening years ago, and suddenly the very same thing unfolds in the present day.. very accurately at that.
I wouldn't call it ESP though, usually this happens with very unimportant events.. I never seem to get this with anything big in my life, so it isn't as though I'm predicting the future.. And it is just as easy to assume that my mind is somehow fooling me into thinking I recall these things happening when I am not, but it is all too vivid and weird to outright dismiss. (Why would the mind get so jumbled to make you "think" you remember something happening before? Especially in such clarity as I do?) Lots of stuff doesn't add up here..
And both my mother and myself seem to have some odd sense about death in the family, though that isn't uncommon really. In fact, it is probably very common, which makes you wonder how people can so quickly sweep these things under the rug.. Theres definately something about the mind we haven't grasped fully yet.
I played it for three years too.. And it is crappy. The game is unforgiving, and just a repetitive pattern that keeps rolling on and on.. Yea, most games are just repetitive patterns - but XI doesn't even TRY to hide that fact, and that drives me crazy! I can't stand them, and it doesn't try to cover it up at all to make it seem more interesting.. Instead, it just gradually got more and more boring, and more and more frustrating.
I spent three years on a single character and never finished the game story.. Some might think that's impressive and that the game is truly vast when I say this, but it couldn't be more than the opposite.. The world is tiny, very tiny, and the story is not very long at all.. So what took me so long? Simple, the grinding in-between the tiny five minute bits of cut scenes (seriously) goes on for hours and hours on end.. And you know what? People ALWAYS go to the same places to level, and even the same places to camp mobs. (Yes, camp.. exploring and killing at the same time is unheard of in this game and you get laughed at if you even suggest it.) Zilart expansion was already in the package when it hit with the US, so most of us never even noticed the changes it made.. Promathia was lame as hell, they placed ridiculous difficulty bounders up to keep people from progressing in the story at a reasonable rate and released the content for it very slowly.. (Yes that's right, you bought an expansion that had virtually no story content at its release and had to wait months for them to release the next "chapter.")
Their latest attempt came after I quit of course, but from all I have heard and seen.. it is no better off. In fact, it might be worse.
That's all just a tip of the iceberg to the games problems too. SE hasn't even TRIED to adjust any major player concerns that I've seen.. Everything is incredibly static in the world and pretty much everything implemented stays that way forever. (No matter how terrible the implementation.) I can honestly only think of a couple of things they changed that are worth noting.. (Slight decrease in the first Promathia mission difficulty for one.) But all and all, they just left things as is and ignored everyone's cries. What did get changed was pretty irrelevant.. Meh, the game left me bitter as hell.. I was miserable playing it for awhile, but stuck around for friends.. That was a stupid mistake on my part, but they've mostly all quit too by now. (Takes some longer than others to realize how crappy the game is.. but it is DEFINATELY is crappy.)
Ironic you say this, since Warcraft III had Pandaren's and Panda mobs in it, eh? And yes, it was in China. Not to mention there is a "panda cub" pet in WoW right now.
This my friend, is the lamest and least thought out excuse anyone has ever some up with against them. And infact, if it wouldn't stop them from doing it anyway. Ever hear of censoring? Just retexture them to a different kind of bear in the Chinese version if it is such a problem. (Which it isn't.)
My opinion on the subject:
Although the Draenei did enter through the Dark Portal and into Azeroth at one time, and there are NPC's of them on the Eastern Kingdoms already in the Swamp of Sorrows, the new "kingdom" for the Draenei would really only make sense in the Outland, since that is their place of origin and the fact that there really aren't enough of them on Azeroth right now.. (A small tribe at most.)
Problem with that is, the portal is sealed right now and supposedly will require a world event to open, thus if their kingdom is on the other side.. they are isolated until the server opens the gate.. Also, Outland has been portrayed as a high level area only, which further dispels the idea of the Draenei as the new Alliance race. The only way in fact, that the Draenei would work is if they placed them on Kalimdor somewhere, and as far as I have ever known, they've never been to Kalimdor.
Why Kalimdor? Look at how the kingdoms are currently situated.. Ironforge and Stormwind (Alliance) are on the Eastern Kingdoms; along with the Undercity (Horde). Orgrimmar and Thunderbluff (Horde) are on Kalimdor; along with Darnassus (Alliance). See how that is symmetrical? Well, the new Horde race (Blood Elves) are going to be on the Eastern Kingdom, which makes sense according to lore.. So where does that leave the new Alliance race? Right, Kalimdor.
Not much makes sense for Kalimdor as a race, though if you want -my- opinion, I would say Pandaren; since according to lore their kingdom exists somewhere on an isolated island around Kalimdor. Though another possibility could be the Furblog's, and as odd as that is, they would fit in perfectly with Kalimdor.
Pandaren's seem likely to me because they're both popular, and work with the lore. Yes, they are part of lore. They were originally (supposedly) a joke at one time for April's Fools. But they became officially integrated into the lore at some point and became an enigmatic race of Warcraft history. That aside though, they're very attuned with the earth, and they were at one time friends with the Night Elves (Alliance Race) and also buddies with the Dwarves (Alliance Race). They apparently bear no bad will with Humans or Gnomes (Alliance Races) either. Yet bear bad will towards Trolls and Undead; and apparently some issues with the Tauren as well (All Horde). They are unsure about the Orc's (Horde Race) though it is known that one of their kind previously helped them. (One time only.) It seems pretty clear that they are Alliance Friendly to me.
Also, they apparently hate magic abusers. And the Blood Elves are -big- magic addicts, who abuse magic.. Seems to make sense, eh?
Sure, it could be anything, but I betting Pandaren for now.. Which is just speculation based on the lore. Truth is though, the race will have to be on Kalimdor regardless of what it is. I am merely taking that into consideration, unlike so many others.
"Sorry, links to Bugzilla from Slashdot are disabled."
I laughed.
The actual code should -not- take up very much space after being compiled. Sure, complicated scripts often do take up space and such.. But that's not really his point, and not always compiled with the base code. The -base- code is not going to take up much space, and as he said it didn't matter anyway.
As for music, come on.. I have much more than 12 hours of music in loosely compressed MP3's on my computer here, and it only comes to so many GB.. 12 hours of music properly compressed would NOT take up very much space unless you were idiotic and lazy about it, leaving it completely uncompressed.
As for textures.. I personally loathe that textures alone are bloating up so much space. I like pretty graphics sure, everyone does, but I like playing a GAME more.. All this space being wasted on pretty graphics is disgusting.. And there really needs to be something done about it..
Now the models, you said it yourself.. They don't take up much space. Animation wasn't even something he "mentioned" you know? Animation shouldn't be a problem anyway in taking up a lot of space, everything properly compressed shouldn't end up so bloated..
As for FMV's, they're dying out, and for that I am glad.. They're a waste of space for showing something they could do ingame just as easily.
I can (almost) understand the claim about WoW, there are many times where you jump from high locations. (Albeit, a lot of times you just die from jumping so high.. and you'd think the kid would have taken the hint from that.) ..but Warcraft III? I can't think of ANY jumping scenes of any kind from Warcraft III. Not one. And you can't really create your own either, it's a top-down view RTS, with no actual way "to" jump. So exactly how is this a reinactment of any kind?
It honestly sounds as if the kid was suicidal, and nothing else..
Why would you quit the game over a level cap increase? That's a ridiculous statement. Besides, have you forgotten about the Hero classes they're working on? They were suppose to be there at WoW release but were delayed and have since been revamped and continuously worked on from what I hear.
Ten more levels isn't something to quit over.. Not saying I want the cap raised, I actually don't care at all, I just find such statements so.. absurd.
If you play games just to push your graphics card to the limit, then maybe you aren't playing for the right reasons?
I checked all the links, I don't see that anywhere attached to the article. If it's there it's buried pretty deep, and it doesn't related to the topic article. (They contradict each other.) So what is said there does not apply to this discussion.
Honestly though.. If he had just linked to that or noted the contradictions, that would have been one thing.. He just sounds to be blowing steam however.
Who said anything about a new class? The linked article said "no new classes" if you actually bothered to read it. Rumors don't count, and have nothing to do with the actual news. That said however, a new class for the Blood Elves would make sense in the way you described, Spellbreakers..
Haven't heard anything of a 100 man instance with Horde and Alliance cooperating either, again, you're pulling rumors from different sources entirely which does not pertain to this at all.
Cap is raised to 70, not 75 according to the article, again, did you read it?
The Emerald Dream is already in game data, and the Dragons guarding the portals leading there were already added.. The Outlands, well, I know for a fact Outlands objects are in data, not sure if the actual zone is or not.. But seriously, they're there already, why not add them? Northerend was not mentioned anywhere that I can see either. There isn't even a place for it on the current map.
And no, I don't think it's just fans wanting dreams to come true. Why wouldn't Blizzard add something that a majority of their fans keep asking for, keep wanting? They add it, they keep players playing.. They keep players playing and they keep making a profit, it's all win all around.
And yes, adding races is plausible. They could add a whole new faction other than Horde and Alliance too. Is it likely? Not at all, but plausible.
I think the real question, is why are Blood Elves mentioned as part of the Horde? They had previous ties to Alliance, why Horde now? They're more or less a Neutral race as it stands, so the shift to Horde is a little odd to me.. But I'm not complaining either. I want to see what Alliance gets first before I do that.
Well.. An expansion after a years time for an MMO isn't that surprising really. A year isn't a short time you know? And sure, it hasn't been out quite a year yet, but the expansion probably won't be done for awhile yet either.. So oh well? Might as well start early than late in the production of it. Also, it is debatable that the subscription fee is not for content updates, but for maintaining the servers. And as many players should know, they do run into a fair share of troubles with that sometimes.. Sure, they most certainly pocket extra change from it too; considering the vast amount of people playing right now, but eh.. Anyways, the game is pretty big as is, the updates haven't been bad so far, and the ones upcoming look great too. I don't mind buying an expansion for new content myself, after all, making a profit off their work is incentive to.. you know, actually do the work.