Also, an argument against having them be available to both races is that it’d make the language thing sorta silly. Half the Goblins don’t speak the same language as the other half? I don’t buy that for a second.

Neutrals could group with players on either of the other 2 sides (the opposing sides couldn’t group together, same as WoW)
Neutrals were also allowed to go into the cities of the other sides without being attacked by guards
In outdoor PvP areas* Neutrals couldn’t initiate an attack on either of the other 2 sides, but could fight back if attacked (bit of a nightmare for them!)

Maybe someone else with a better memory than me could remember more details

*There weren’t any battlegrounds back when I played so I’ve no idea how that would work if Blizzard put a third faction into WoW.

If those two races do become playable, I think the Horde will be joined by the goblins from Undermine and Alliance will get the worgens from Gilneas. And these would be the 2 main cities on the Maelstrom expansion – enough of this Neutral City hub that lags everyone!

It would make perfect sense to me, they both get attacked by the naga and look for some help.

PS: doesnt the worgen mask scream Alliance to anyone else? They look like nice puppies!
Wangari´s last blog ..We kept our sanity

Some possibilities:

1) Goblins and Worgen (the two go-to speculative races for the next xpac – also for Burning Crusade before the final races were announced) Become playable races, one for the Alliance, one for the Horde.

- This would be easily done, we’ve seen them do this before. As Matticus pointed out, I don’t think they fit very many classes well as they are currently presented in lore.

2) Goblins and Worgen become their own faction.

- This would be a HUGE, sweeping change to the way the game works. How do battlegrouds work now? 3 sides? that’s just one way that this would be a huge amount of work.

3) Goblins and Worgen may freely switch factions.

- Same as #2. Also, Undead used to be able to speak common, and they removed that. They like the faction barrier to be a big wall and not easily scaled.

4) Blizzard saw everyone going nuts over a new expansion, and trying to guess new races and classes. They thought that these races might not really be a good fit as player characters, but since everyone is crazy about them, they thought they’d add Halloween masks to cause more excitement and speculation.

- this is my personal favorite. This whole thing smells a lot like their April Fool’s jokes.

5) Blizzard wants to telegraph what the new races are, not by announcement (until Blizzcon, I’m betting), and not by questlines in the game that hint at the arrival of new friends, but through the most anticlimactic and silly way possible.

- This just strikes me as a silly way to introduce content. But I could be wrong…

There’s nothing to say that the Goblin Mask (or the worgen for that matter) indicate another race. More likely they’re just adding new achievements for people who got last years completed already.

And as for the Choose Your Own Faction idea, great in concept but Blizzard has stressed the PVP aspect will negate any intermingling of races. Its also the reason I think we’ll never see a factional Pandaren race. You can’t have them on both sides, and too many would complain (or transfer sides) if one or the other got them.