Originally Posted by
Yig
I'm the person who asked Ghostcrawler what he thought about the new character models being optional, and he answered my tweet. He said yes, they "might" well be an option because(paraphrasing) it would be the best way to minimize the drama that will come from this change. But Blizzard has said they straight up will not let that controversy keep them from finally doing this and they won't "hide" behind it as an excuse.
There's really no reason why they shouldn't let you keep your old model. The new skeletons will likely look exactly the same in shape, just having more movable parts for better animations.
Ghostcrawler also specifically addressed the issue of ethnic skin choices based on lore being added to the game for players in a recent interview around MOP's release.
He said they have been on their mind and they've seriously considered doing it, they are at the point of discussing how to go about it. Something like brand new lore or quest lines for instance. Most of the lore is already in place, fel orcs and mag'har have members in the Horde. Dark Irons and Wildhammers have members in the Alliance.
In fact, early in Cataclysm's beta, you could actually choose Wildhammer tattoos that were bound to a few new skin options. It was rough, as the tattoos were bound to entire selections of skin and face I believe, but it was ultimately removed before polishing.
They also changed all grey skinned player dwarf skins to have red eyes. People complained or asked about the change on the CATA Beta forum and a blue said it was done to better represent the Dark Irons as members of the Alliance. Which is pretty cool I think. But actual full fledged Dark Iron skins with red glowing eyes would have been cooler.
I think if the model upgrade becomes a feature of the next expansion IN PLACE of a new player race, more developer resources can be allotted to the project which could open the door to new hairstyles and ethnic skin options as well as just what we are already getting.