Relieved. Hopeful. More than a little glad that we don't seem to be seeing a lot of Edition Warring - maybe people really are ready for reunification.
But not confident. I fear making a D&D that is all things to all people is an impossible task, I fear that WotC may still be labouring under impossible requirements from Hasbro. And I can't help but remember thinking that they were doing exactly the right things with 4e, right until they took an horrific wrong turn.
So, positive, but with significant reservations.
Not to start an edition war, but I'd contest that whether or not they were doing the right things with 4E depends on whether or not you *liked* 4E.
Now, either Hasbro is putting on pressure for them to have shorter lifespans to the editions OR they recognize that something went wrong with the way they went about 4E, and they allegedly lost a number of customers, and cut the edition short. They gained new customers, but there sure seemed to be a heck of a lot of acrimony.....for years.
I wonder where this announcement places Pathfinder? I guess the proof is in the pudding as to how good Pathfinder is. If it's strong enough to stand on its own two feet.
I don't think there's enough info on 5E to really make any decisions. I like what Monte's done, and hope to see some of the mechanics systems of 4E go away (daily, encounter, etc.)......at least with respect to it being the mechanic on which all actions for all classes is determined.
I really liked some of the other elements, like the Feywild etc. Only took 4 editions to get that added into the game.
I'd love to see Wizards act more like Magisters from Arcana Unearthed........a spellcasting system that may have its roots in Vancian spellcasting, but is not so much "fire and forget". He also designed an interesting spell building system for his "World of Darkness" adaptation. But I suspect it may be difficult for them to backtrack on the changes to how magic worked in 4E.
Banshee