First of all, great thread idea.
I will say i have not read even close to the 9 pages of this discussion, so i'm sorry if my opinion is just a rehash of whats been said already.
I love magic items but not when they are so common that they become blah. When i read fantasy novels they are really cool cause magic items do something unique. Somethings "awe" factor really is proportional to its rarity (and power) for example a handgun would be a rare and powerful magic item in ancient Egypt, but not so much in southern (modern) Texas. A +5 sword at level X isn't any more magical or awe inspiring than a +1 sword at low level if everyone has them. But to be honest "Plus" anything swords have never been that awe inspiring. Might as well call it a nondescript game mechanic modifier weapon. Game mechanics are something abstract, and therefore will never be that awe inspiring. Sure you can say its +1 because its lighter and sharper than other swords, but players know that a sword can only become so light and so sharp. Just trying to say that mechanical modifiers will never be as interesting as items that actually "do stuff". If i was designing the new edition i would consider removing mechanical modifier items altogether.
Another thing that ruins magic items in my opinion, is the bag of holding full of potions of healing. Or the bag of holding full of magical wands. Or bags of holding full of anything really. I have no logical criticism of this other than it just seems campy. It seems like a cheap way of getting around the class limits on spells as well. Who cares if the mage only gets X first levels spells when he has a wand of 10,000 magic missiles?
In my personal opinion this all harkens back to the video game industry. In a video game RPG there are only so many ways to reward players and thusly make the game funner (so they will keep playing). You can reward them with a level up every few hours, or a story line completion every few hours, but other than that; buying new stuff, and finding new stuff is what keeps dragging them along to the next level, so much more so in mmorpg's than in story based rpg's. In my opinion what attracts players to table top gaming, rather than video game gaming is what it can bring that a video game can't. Sure there is the in person interaction, that is definitely a strong factor, but also in a good game, there is the idea that you can play your favorite book or movie style hero, and actually have a chance that the game is going to be about more than just collecting stuff and leveling up. Anyways i'm just rambling my way now.
Well, it long predates the video game industry of course. I can attest that in the very earliest adventures in the days before days (or at least before the first module) there were plenty of magic items being given out. I think the thing is it is easy to talk about amazingly cool games where the magic is magic, the barbarians are all mighty thewed heroes with a great backstory, and the women are all... Er, em, where was I.
The truth is that most DMs are not incredible story tellers. We're just ordinary mortals and playing a fun casual game where if we're lucky the campaign goes somewhere and most of it is about instant gratification and fun moments. Handing out some magic items is a cool and easy way to have some fun and move things along. Yeah, it isn't exactly highbrow literary quality fantasy epic, but it is FUN.
Thus the game really mostly is designed to cater to the common man amongst gamers. In fact this probably explains the success of D&D specifically through the years more than anything else. It's a very accessible game. Most ordinary people, like me, can whip up an adventure that consists of a plot hook or two, a fairly simple map, some basic monsters, and a pile of treasure or two. On our more inspired days we come up with a pretty cliche NPC and some reasonably cunning traps. I've DMed for basically ever and I'll be totally honest, that's really the root of my being successful, to some degree, as a DM.
In the final analysis the people designing a new version of D&D have to ask themselves some questions. The main one being what segment of the audience is it most important to support and to what degree does that need to shape the way the game works? IMHO for most DMs and groups a game that easily slots in all the magic items they're going to be handed anyway seems like a pretty solid choice to make. Sure, that means items are basically assumed, but it also means the average DM has a fairly easy time running the game. If it can be done in such a way that the game also supports the amazing tales of the Piratecat's of the world that's great. Most of us just aren't in that league and such options probably won't help us a lot.
At the end of a hard-fought battle when my players are eagerly expecting treasure and cool lootz and getting ready to tote up their XP totals and see if they went up a level yet a few magical items that they can use in the next adventure and do something cool, albeit even if it is just add to a die roll they make often, that meets the need. I'd be kind of surprised if 5e wasn't aimed largely at that kind of DM and game. I know it probably would be if I were in charge.
I'd really strongly favor a design that allows for the rare unique story-item-only mode of play as well. Honestly though is 4e not pretty much that game? It certainly is much more so than 3.x is from what I can see. You have a relatively simple official option in the book that supports getting rid of any mechanical dependency and really the rest is always going to be up to the DM. Given that such games are run by people who have a pretty thorough understanding of the game, generally, I'd be most likely in favor of making really low magic the option and making classic D&D magic-is-common the default option. Maybe there's a cleaner way to do it than 4e did, but I'm hard-pressed to see what it is.
