First if you haven’t read Ryan’s post you should start here. It contains links to the information that we base our reactions on.
Before we get too involved here is my brief D&D history.
I started playing in 1981. I took a break in Middle School. Started back again in ’86. The play experience carried me into 2nd edition. I remember that the transition was a simple one and I enjoyed proficiencies. I stopped playing again sometime in the mid 90’s.
2002-ish I started to play again. This time it was 3.5. Again it was a simple step into the the new edition. Oddly enough I didn’t miss the things that were changed. I missed the things that were used for background, like the GM description chart, and the random dungeon building chart from the DMG.
