The McGuffin Pattern

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mcguffin

I'm going to go out on a limb here and define my own terminology for some patterns I believe are occouring within non linear narratives. Terms are useless in the broader context; noone will ever come to know and use mine, to be sure. But I had to put some sort of memorable title for this, and various other patterns that are emergent within non linear narratives so my own terms will have to do untill I find a more official theory that agrees with my own.

And really, that might sound exceptionally lazy, but within non linear litterary theory, very little context is available. Indeed, the best topology I have come upon is from 95 and has 10 hits on google for most of the terms it defines. And even that is very basic; it simply defines names with meaningful etymology for some of the most basic constructs within this area. I'm speaking of Espen Arseths essay called something to the effect of "a topology of "....and I forget the rest. It's in my bookcase, and if you google arseth I'm sure you'll come upon it...eventually.

At any rate, the McGuffin Pattern. What am I on about?
In books and novels, a McGuffin is a unique item that is intrinsically linked to the plot in some manner; in fact, the whole point is that it's linked to the plot, and has been since it's conception. It's such a fundamental piece, by definition, that the plot designer invented it to help him rationalize something he wanted to do. For example, it is the holy grail of the arthurian legend, or the ring in the lord of the rings.

In computer games, it is an item that allows the game designer to fashion his quest in a manner that makes sense to him. To follow the McGuffin pattern in game design, though, is to make major parts of the game play experience linear. Within non linear narrative theory, then, it imposes a linear narrative on an experience that is, at a lower level, non linear. Many will see it as a necessary evil, probably, and I tend to agree if you're ok with imposing a linear narrative on a non-linear experience. If that somehow makes more sense than the alternative, then it's obviously the sensible thing to do.
But let me step back a bit and explain why the application of a mcguffin makes the game experience linear:
Fallout 1 and 2 are both driven by the search for specific items at the outset, or so it seems. In fallout it's the waterchip, in fallout 2 it's the garden of eden creation kit. But these are, in fact, not McGuffins. At least, the waterchip isn't; what you're really searching for is a clean, permanent source of water for the vault because the waterchip broke. And in fact, there are more than one solution to this - you can aquire a waterchip from a number of sources (though that number is not sufficiently high, in my oppinion) - and you can, similarly, get water merchants to bring water to the vault.
To be a McGuffin, it would have to be a unique item. Had it been a unique item, the game would necessitate that you do certain specific actions on any given playthrough.
In this fashion, the McGuffin pattern necessitates that the player commit to certain very specific actions, and a very specific narrative, whenever he accepts any sort of task that involves a McGuffin.
So essentially, the McGuffin Pattern is an anti-pattern - when utilized within RPG's and similar games, you lock down the narrative, and this is the kicker: You do so, because you, as a writer, want to do something specific with the narrative. You take away the players liberty because you feel you have something better than liberty of narrative to offer him.

Now it may be that you do, but you have to realize that you make the player into a passive observer rather than an active participant.

So how do you avoid that? Don't use unique items. And try not to make characters the goals of quests. Ideally? Present the player with open ended problems rather than solutions that need to be filled in.