Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
Right, the term "edition" has been abused in TTRPG circles to the point of being useless...hence why WotC is dropping the term entirely. Which means, by default, ~90% of the TTRPG market no longer even uses "edition" to mean anything.I don't think it matter anymore. Done is done and it's not going to change. It's been this way for too long and among too many companies for change to happen.
No, there haven't been 5 "editions" in terms of unique game rules etc even, and "First Edition" wasn't even the first one. Rationally, there have been about 17 Editions of D&D, all of which still keep play and we talk about in these circles (such as the differences between Holmes vs. Moldvay vsOkay, but that doesn't matter even a smidge. When discussing editions, we are using the industry definition, not the publishing definition. 1st, 3rd, 12th or 1 millionth publishing edition, it doesn't matter. In D&D there have been 5 editions(capital E) and that's what people discussing D&D editions are talking about.
Meltzer D&D). By publication parlance, there have been 9 editions (as of this Summer) of the PHB and DMG lines. Anything else (like "3rd Edition", "3.5", or "5E") is just marketing BS.