I've never really "understood" the silhouette idea.

For one, the only races I can truly identify by shape are the tauren and dwarves (and sometimes orcs), at least know that we have two diminutive races (goblins & gnomes).

Secondly, I never used it. Honestly. Never once have I had to look far into the distance and judge by shape whether a player was Horde or Alliance. Not once.

In BG's, red name is bad. Same for arenas. Same for everything, in fact. But even discounting that, by the time that I truly NEED to know which side a guy is on, he's already close enough for me to positively ID him based on the fact that he's tall, blue, and has tusks.

"Oh, well, that must be an elf," I think.

No. Wait, I actually think that its a troll. Because it is.

My point is that the main argument against the silhouette idea is maximum cast distance. Are their truly any classes that have spells with such a long range that they have to be able to identify a little tiny silhouette on the horizon? No. And even if their were, all they'd have to do is look at the cursor.

So good move, Blizz. Now I can wear all those old sets that I saved in the (apparently not so) vain hope that I could wear them again.
/salute