What would
I like it to look like? Well, as long as I'm dreaming:
http://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpages/setscans/cyclopedia.html
.....
I'd like to see it go back to the roots. The things that made D&D great in the first place:
* strong archetypes/niches
* hit die progression stops at 9th level
* few but meaningful spells
* simplicity: no feats or skills
* demihuman level limits and class strictures (or race/class, ideally)
I'm not trying to spark an "edition war" on my very first post, but things are too complicated now. It's hard to do what should be simple. Combats take hours (one of my last 3.5 combats took all session for one fight... and the session ran long) and character sheets are huge.
Back in the days of good old Classic D&D, you didn't need separate classes for Rangers, Barbarians, etc. My Fighter is a woodsman, so he knows how to track and survive in the wild. Dave's Fighter was a mercenary, so he is streetwise and knows about contracts. Bill's Fighter is a knight, a young equestrian who knows etiquette and mounted combat. Three characters all called "Fighter" with 8 hit points and equivalent stats, but three totally different characters. You don't need a ton of feats and skills to have those differences!
Anyway, less is more. You'll never compete with World of Warcraft on WoW's home turf. If you want to compete, give people a rules-lite game that sparks their imagination. Leave the number-crunching for the computers.