How will it go? Will it be burned? Will it have actual graphics? (without mods)
Post your thoughts, this applies to Dwarf Mode and Adventure Mode.
Well, 5 years will be at least 5 more major releases and probably a few of the significant but lesser releases as well. At a minimum I would expect the current dev arc items in the current dev page to all be completed to some degree. Its a good thing Toady is already toying with 64 bit because we'll need the unlimited memory to handle all the complexity. (I personally think the 32 bit memory bottleneck is a much bigger problem than the lack of multi-core support)
It should be much much more of a full fledged Fantasy World Simulator at that point. Adventure Mode will be A LOT more interesting with A LOT more options. Fortress Mode will have expanded to include Hill Dwarves and control over Dwarven Armies, etc. I.E. you can play as a Dwarven Kingdom and not just a single Fortress, if you desire to. We'll also have the starting scenarios which should add a lot more variety and focused Fortress Game Play, etc.
Personally the simulation stuff is what excites me the most. And the vision of Adventure Mode within the Simulation. I'm very much looking forward to doing things like starting as a peasant Outsider human and being able to have him rise through the ranks all the way to founding a powerful Merchant Family or becoming King and then having actual game play as King or head of said Merchant Family, etc. Or be a Pirate captain with my own Pirate Ship and crew within a fully simulated fantasy world. Stuff like this. Or just being able to go into God Mode and just watch the world unfold while occasionally Trolling NPC's and generally being a capricious Greek-style God
Hell, just standing on a street corner in a random town and watching the procedural simulation play out around me could entertain me for a long time. Even in the current version I can sit in a crowded tavern and just marvel at all the activity - and this is still just the palest glimmer of what is coming. I've seen enough now to have confidence in Toady pulling off the Fantasy world Simulator vision.
I have some hope that third party utilities will keep advancing as well, perhaps all the way to having alternate clients with isometric views, and such?