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A Magnetic Plot Device might actually do something, but a MacGuffin doesn't. It simply exists to be sought after.
Its one of the most subtle trope distinctions, but what it comes down to is that a magnetic plot device actually serves a purpose in the story beyond being just "the X that everybody wants to get ahold of"- if you could swap it out for a magic golden toilet seat (or a talking chimpanzee for the living ones) without changing the actual story, its a MacGuffin.
Edited by Scorpion451
Not to mention, a MacGuffin isn't necessarily sought after by everyone, it's just the focal point of the story because somebody wants to get their hands on it.
Additionally, a Magnetic Plot Device is not necessarily an artifact — a Plot Device can just as easily be a character or a location or even an event, and a Magnetic Plot Device is any such Plot Device that, one way or another, draws characters to interact with it, either with an explicitly-stated ability to do so, or a less explicit quality. Maybe the city is the Magnetic Plot Device because The Prophecy states that some cool stuff will go down here and everyone wants to get in on it. Maybe Alice is the plot device because she's super hot and the story is all about the princes who answer her father's Engagement Challenge.
Would Soul Edge in Soul Calibur fall into Magnetic Plot Device? The majority of playable characters sought after it for their own reasons, and they meet each other along the way.
MAX POWER KILL JEEEEEEEEWWWWW
Yeah, definitely.
What's the difference of MacGuffin and Magnetic Plot Device?