A starter area and getting all of the existing armor skins to fit just so you can have a new skin for your toon. No just no. A complete waste of resources.
Ah, but a new race (assuming Tengu) brings more than just new looks.
A new race would bring in new lore. Just look at all the stuff you learn about the various races by playing through the first three parts of the personal story. For those of us that enjoy getting into the lore and feel of the various races, this is the real payoff of a new race.
A new race would bring in new skins. Aside from new cultural armor (which is, admittedly, limited to the race), there’s cultural weapons as well. If Tengu were brought in, at least one set of Tengu weapons would be expected, maybe two or three.
A new race would bring in a new enemy faction. Right now, the Tengu we actually fight are few and far between, with little made of their motivations. But every player race in the game has their dark side, and I’m sure Tengu would be no exception. It would likely be a political faction, the most isolationist of them all. In fact, it would be easy to say that we’ve “met” them before, that they had control of the gate during the attack on Lion’s Arch and gave the order to fire on everyone.
Finally, a new race gives you a reason to make a new character. This one’s more of a win for ANet than us, but it’s still a valid gain from a new race. Some would delete old characters and restart them, others would buy character slots and start fresh. Either way causes items to be shuffled around in the economy and new play time invested. Even someone that tomes straight to level 80 and has a deleted character’s gear to pass on will still want to replay some of the older content with the new character. More people engaged in playing throughout the game is good for the game, which is good for both ANet and the players. Sales of character slots is an added bonus.
