[Turadis]

I think pretty much all of what Shujin said would come true, actually. But my main additional perspective is focused on another issue, and informed by decades of experience in RPing communities. This one in particular.

Monster races are very cool, and the big part of their coolness is how they're handled in the setting as distinct from 'common' races, which, in SL2, they definitely would not be. You need only look at how vampires and liches were handled for proof of that. But that also doesn't really matter that much to me, someone else may have a different idea of why being a lizard-man is cool. Even if it's just to RP being cold blooded or something. However, there is one additional pandora's box here that I don't dare uncrack.

I've had issues with a lot of Dev's decisions regarding the game over the years, but one thing I've never once judged as anything but completely necessary is the total embargo on anthropomorphic characters. It is, and will always be, an ERP sex thing.

Everyone knows it on some level but it anxious to say it. When someone wants to play an anthropomorphic character, it is nine times out of ten, a fetish thing. They will always try to claim it is not a fetish thing, but it is always transparently a fetish thing. As a game that is already battling to provide a space where plotlines about epic fantasy drama other than alchemizing the beast with two backs can exist, opening the floodgates to a particular community of people invested in making every space they touch an ERP fetish playground bursting with so much sexual harrassment and public indecency that the administration struggles to keep up with it all is a death sentence.

Back in World of Warcraft, a game which had developer intended and demarcated roleplaying servers for those who were not aware, the playable release of the werewolf-esque Worgen race in 2010 had catastrophic effects on the roleplaying community such as what I've noted above. The same or similar stories have played out in D&D Living servers I've been to, in other BYOND games I've looked into, and even in a few forum RPs I've been involved with. It's the same with all public roleplaying spaces. SL2 would not be different. It is the sort of thing that can only work in a private space with people you know you can trust.

Now, not every monsterous concept suggested in the OP was necessarily an anthromorph. I wouldn't have a shred of issue with non-anthromorph monsterous characters being more freely permitted. And indeed, anthromorph characters that are portrayed as serious characters in the setting and don't exist to get the player's rocks off can hypothetically exist. Just like vampires and liches who were totally adherent to the race's lore and intent can exist. But how common were they? And indeed, sexual harrassment is an issue in the community already, even without opening these particular floodgates. But I sincerely feel the quantity of such issues we deal with now would not even be a fraction of what we would be inviting by allowing anthropomorphic characters in an unrestricted capacity.

If monsterous races are going to be permitted going forward, I heavily advocate that they remain application-only. Individual players should be vetted, and their character art and concepts scrutinized to prevent a downward spiral like what I've observed so often in the past.