I admire your honesty, if nothing else.
However, I would argue that what you are looking for is a Warcraft Sandbox, and not the MMO that has existed for the past 18 years, and would ask that you not conflate the two.
There is no difference. Fantasy is a sandbox. Azeroth is just our playground. Within it, we can be whoever or whatever we please - we merely have to find other players willing to accept our narrative of our character.
I’ve been on RP servers since 2004 and I’ve met people who RP as full-grown dragons. It’s fine with me, even if their character sprite doesn’t look like one. They have people playing along and they’re happy, so good for them.
I’ve been here since they opened the gates, doing whatever the hell I felt like. I’ve soloed since 2004, RPed whatever struck my fancy, and lived by my own standards in WoW the whole time the game’s been running. I’m in no danger of conflating anything. WoW is the centerpiece of my life, and a large part of the reason behind that is that it can be whatever I want it to be and it’s up to me how I regard it. 
As have I, my friend. RIP Silver Hand and Venture Co. Your tenure has no power here.
Regardless, I’m sure you’ve encountered far more outlandish characters than this.
Are you meaning to tell me that you interact with someone that RPs as a Night Elf druid, and someone that RPs as Mike Tyson the same? And that the game should conform to fit the desires of the person wanting to play as the venerated Iron Mike, over its own defined world? If so, then I would reiterate:
What you are looking for is a sandbox, and I would refer you to something like Gary’s Mod, not WoW.
Except for when they suddenly pull out of their backsides that YES, we will have NE mages, or Tauren paladins, or Panda DKs, or really any other lore changing decision that’s been done over the course of the game.
Limiting players at this point is detrimental and dumb towards the continuation of the game. There should be MORE inclusion and gameplay available, not less. The story reasons can and have been adjusted as needed to make it fit.
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That they have done poorly in the past does not justify continuing to do poorly going into the future, though.
I actually kind of take exception to this sentiment, as if it were comparable to inclusion of RL immutable characteristics. This isn’t inclusion.
This is submitting to a vocal minority who don’t care about lore or setting and just want what they want impulsively. I’m sure some people want to be able to be space marines or protoss from SC. Does that mean they should be added in WoW to be inclusive to people that want that? No. It means those people should play SC.
Similarly, people that want to play a game that is a continuation of the stories set forth in the WC RTS series in an MMO world with defined peoples and cultures should be able to play WoW, and that is OP’s point. Not everyone can get what they want, and if you want a boundless sandbox, games for that exist… But is not, and never has been, World of Warcraft.
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I disagree.
My main issue why keep adding NPC’s that can do it but not players. Honestly if they can do it a player should have that option.
Also in before the “ThEy ArE OuTlIeRs, We ArE jUsT aVeRaGe MeMbErS oF oUr RaCe!” people
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And if people want to stay stuck in a particular point in time, they should stick to Classic.
Things are wildly different in terms of lore and story from the original WC3 and WoW timelines. That tends to happen after several crazy expansions and story twists.
Reminds me of the discussion awhile back about the Eredar/Draenai. Metzen even admitted he forgot and screwed up from the WC3 manual of having them be the ultimate bad, but they were a cool looking race they wanted to include.
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Yeah it’s ALWAYS been laziness. Back in vanilla and you can see it right now by making a char on classic. Every single race/class combo had their own questline. The limit was 100% had to do with not wanting to design more questlines and druid forms. It would’ve pushed the release back several months.
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That sounds super cool! It won’t happen because bliz puts in minimal effort into their game. But yeah i’d accept that.
Sorry, but this doesn’t cut it. You can’t confine people that have kept up with nearly 2 decades of story and world building to the beginning of the MMO so that other players can satisfy their whimsy dancing on the corpse of the entire foundation and aesthetic of the game.
I would retort that those players should find a game or universe that started with, and continues to foster a more open and limitlessly customizable design and go with that rather than take an established and defined one and demand that it become what they want of it.
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It’s me! A blue dragon living as a gnome. Been living with and studying gnomes progress with the arcane and now technology for a long time…
I’m with you remove female night elf druids, take away gnome priest put paladins back on the alliance only.
So they should alienate more players and lost subscriptions to other games like FF14?
Cool, cool, bro. I’m sure their shareholders would gladly agree. Or they could grow with the times, just like they’re forced to do with stuff like cross faction grouping.
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The problem with your theory isn’t that it’s wrong. It’s just coming from a place that doesn’t exist in modern WoW.
The issue is that you’re viewing the issue through the eyes of someone that genuinely cares about it overall. The current developers are not people involved at all with the beginnings of this game, they clearly aren’t attached to the lore, nor do they respect it.
They want to tell stories - of course. They want to create gameplay that appeals to everyone. But they don’t truly care about this game like a majority of the playerbase does. Like the original development team did. They care more about pleasing everyone (including the shareholders) than they do about creating a congruent experience.
This entire game is too little butter spread over too much toast. It’s thin now. There’s nothing meaty and interesting about it anymore post-Legion.
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You’re making a bald assumption that trying to appeal to everyone would increase their playerbase and is longevity, when essentially everything that has happened since the Vivendi-Activision merger speaks literally to the opposite.
WoW boomed initially because it was a specified world, a specified product, marketed to a specified audience. THAT was when it was most successful, fullstop. The release of Classic and the success its launch experienced galvanizes that sentiment.
So yes, I’m off the opinion that a game should define its scope and work to deliver to the audience that appreciates it, rather than have all games try to appeal to all audiences but not truly satisfy any of them. The example I provided seems to bear that out.
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Citation needed.
Citation needed
I assume the race class combo you want to play is already available?