Possible changes to tabards, backpacks, and banks

In the recent Blizzard developer chat there were several questions pertaining to player storage. They spoke about the issue with storing tabards from all of your various factions, the default backpack falling behind other bags, and being able to access the bank slots of your alts without the need to use the mail.

All three of these are long standing issues that have usually been avoided when direct questions came up, usually invoking the safe and often used "we'll see" remark. I would love to be able to replace my backpack with a Glacial Bag and gain six storage slots or clear out the bank space I'm using to store specialty tabards. Let's take a look at their responses after the break.

Tabard Storage

Q. For those of us who collect tabards and armor sets, do you see a way for us to store and not use our very limited inventory?
A. Yes. We'd like to store them the same way you do titles. In general, we don't want to punish the pack-rats out there who just like to collect stuff. We will have to wait and see what we can do about it though.

This would probably be the best way to address this. The problem you run into is do you end up having a tab on your character sheet similar to the mount and pet tabs where you can see and select your various mounts or do you just have the drop-down like the titles. Being as some tabards have special abilities, the former solution would probably be the best. This would give you a way to swap them in and out easily as well as possibly a way to activate these special properties.

Shirts also fall into this same issue. While most shirts are just for looks, there are some that do technically give buffs and there is even a specific one that you have to wear while doing part of the gunship battle portion of Icecrown Citadel. If tabards are reworked to require less storage, we'll have to see if shirts get the same treatment.

Personal banks act like guild banks across alts...

Q. Would you be willing to make personal bank storage look more like guild storage and available to all characters on a realm?
A. This is something we discuss a lot. It actually helps with keeping mail volume down as well as a player convenience.

OMG, YES PLZ!... err... That would be nice as well. For those of us with a server full of alts (most of which leveled up to their mid-60s or higher just for professions) this would be an awesome change. I've got an alchemist, scribe, leatherworker, engineer, and enchanter who are constantly sending mails back and forth. It would be a lot easier to just toss the raw materials in the bank, hop on the alt, get them out of that character's bank tab and then make whatever it is I wanted to make. No more mail lag or alt hopping to grab the needed items from each and every character. For those of you with personal guild banks already, I'm sure you can see further ways to expand on this.

Increased backpack size...
Q. Any plans to increase the size of the backpack?
A. Yeah, it's something we discuss a lot. On the other hand, the madness has to end somewhere. I'm not sure I want a 100 slot bag with that much stuff to manage. We'd need to make sure you could easily upgrade the existing backpack; we wouldn't want anyone to manage to just be without any bags.

I imagine this will be done similar to the riding system or any of the other things that require money and a certain level to obtain. You'd likely have an NPC in each of the major city banks offering the option to upgrade your backpack or offering a quest to do so. This would keep the upgrade process gated and allow for players to only get larger backpacks at points the developers believe players will need them. It's a sad day when what started out as your 'big' backpack is now your 'I really wish I could replace this' backpack.

We still have no idea if we'll see these changes in Cataclysm or even the expansion after it. However, storage is a concern to us pack-rats out there and being able to manage it a little easier is always appreciated.