Originally Posted by
Arnorei
One major reason why now the Alliance is not seen as "cool", as its Horde counterpart is because it has too many races that have been seen in other franchises, too many "boring" races. Humans, dwarves, gnomes are these, but we also need to take into account that the Alliance is also the goody faction more and more, and as such it becomes slightly unattractive
-the human commander in Swamp of Sorrows says that she won't burn Stonard and dance in the Horde ashes, as a result, the battle goes back to a statelmate
-the draenei try to make peace with the blood elves and help them even, the blood elves respond by stealing the urns of the dead draenei in Outland to quench their magic thirst
-the dwarves make peace with the Frostwolves then exit the mountains to return home, they're then obliterated by the Forsaken
-the night elves accept to let the orcs have their lumber camp, the orcs then cut at random and attack them in full force.
etc.
These examples all show that the races of the Alliance promote peaceful cooperation... but that they do it too much, and they are weak in the face of the Horde because of it. To make the Alliance interesting, you need unique (or at least less used in other games) races that won't sit by and try to make peace with everyone. Why? Because Alliance has the brains so to say, but lacks the muscle. So then, do the pandaren fit the bill? They're unique, but ferocious? Please, they're all about balance and stuff like this, they'd be treats for the Horde in their conquest of lands. But naga are ferocious and they are able to hate both factions if the story is bent that way.
While, on the other hand, the Horde has the muscle, but lacks the brains, and when I say brains, I don't mean tech, but rather the intelligence to have a race think about the future, the aftermath of a great war. They have the tauren, but tauren seem to just be used as random grunts in the Horde, so they need another race to have two good peaceful races. Pandaren fit the bill. And as such, I belive pandaren to the Horde and naga for the Alliance would be much better from a balancing of "coolness" factor, for both factions.
That said, I wouldn't mind if naga were neutral and went to both races, may I ask why do you think otherwise?