The Skyborne, and the $30 Question
A new elven race that actually fits the world, a starting zone in the Skywall, Druids who aren't Night Elves, and the first race Blizzard has ever charged for outside an expansion. I think that's the right call, and I'll say why.
What Blizzard confirmed
The Skyborne are elves who escaped Dire Maul with help from Al'Akir's air elementals and settled in Skywall. You pick a faction at creation; Horde Skyborne get Shaman, Alliance get Mage, both get Warrior, Hunter, Rogue and Druid, with new sky-blue Druid forms. The race, Zephras Isle, early name reservation (Oct 27 to Nov 3) and a ground mount come in the $29.99 Skyborne Heroic Pack. Forever itself is included with a normal subscription.
The Skyborne are a way for Blizzard to give players something new and interesting, and make some money at the same time.
What's interesting is how they've fit this race into the world, instead of picking an existing one, the Blood Elves, say, and simply extending our reach into the Ghostlands and up to Silvermoon City. At this point in the timeline that's mostly ruins, in worse shape than Dalaran. So a different elven race makes sense. A lot of players wanted to be Druids but didn't want to be Night Elves, and this is a genuinely cool option for them.
For anyone worried the race was being shoehorned in: the quests on the isle will get rid of that fear. Blizzard's writing is top-notch as always, and they've done a great job integrating these elves with the existing lore. It's clear a lot of effort went into it.
What the $30 actually buys
It should be stated plainly: you don't have to pay anything except your subscription. That subscription includes, as always, every previous mainline expansion, Classic Anniversary and the other Classic servers, and now World of Warcraft: Forever. Nobody has to pay the $30. To take advantage of the new race and its starting zone, you do.
If you look at this release and the parts of it that are for sale, I think you can see Blizzard setting a precedent for how they want to approach Forever. When Forever gets an expansion, something that grows the world in the horizontal direction they keep describing, it won't work like a mainline expansion, where we pay full price for a digital game. That's where most of Blizzard's development is focused, and it's paid for accordingly.
Forever's team is small, and Blizzard does have to recoup some cost. Additional content players can buy, alongside a free expansion, is a good model for that. Treat this launch as their first expansion: they gave it away, and it came with a new starting zone and a new race that they charged for. If it's only ever additional content behind the price tag, then anyone who doesn't want it, or doesn't like it, gets every Forever expansion for free and never pays for anything.
Where I land
I think this is a fair way to monetize, and I appreciate that the base game costs nothing beyond the sub. Being upset that part of the Forever release sits behind $30 is a short-sighted view. It's appropriate, it's healthy for the game, and I hope this exact pattern plays out with every future Forever expansion.
A new race that belongs in the world, and a price tag that doesn't gate the world itself. If that's the shape of every Forever expansion, I'm fine with it.