Trophy News from PSX Extreme

Fallout 3 Trophy Guide Discovered

Okay, so say you unwrap Fallout 3 for the PlayStation 3 tomorrow, and you’re just dying to get started. You also know, somewhere in the back of your happy and satisfied mind, that Bethesda has delivered Trophies for the year’s best RPG. But damn, how to snag them all…?

Well, it’s true- the Xbox 360 Achievements have made their way to Fallout 3 for the PS3 in the form of Trophies, and if you’re wondering, yes, the list is identical. You’ll have to pick up everything from the Bronze “The Superhuman Gambit” Trophy to the Silver “Keys Are For Cowards” Trophy to the all-encompassing Platinum Trophy, and everything in between. If you’re dead-set on getting as many as possible, you don’t want a list; you want a guide! So head on over to GameSpy, where they have the full Fallout 3 Trophies Guide. They show you every Trophy, and if explanation is required on how to add it to your collection, they include that, too. Come 2009, Trophies will be mandatory for all developers if they wish to produce their game for the PS3, so just think how many of those glittering icons you’ll have before the end of next year… Hot titles like Fallout 3 are only the beginning, and because the game is so good, it’ll likely inspire you to get as many Trophies as possible. It’s just an excuse to play more Fallout, and who doesn’t want that?

Trophy lists for blockbusters are always fun. We can’t wait to see what’s coming for the likes of Killzone 2 and - oh dear Lord, can you imagine - Gran Turismo 5? For the latter, we imagine there will be many busted controllers; Polyphony could be uber-cruel if they really wanted to…we can picture it now: “Master Driver” Gold: Get all gold medals on all license test challenges.” 

Rewarding Mr. Ayer’s Courage

The original Disciples of Beethoven Award honors the street musician who has touched so many hearts.

They had every kind of trophy you could imagine at House of Trophies in Boyle Heights. Soccer, basketball, baseball, football, even fishing. They had trophies 6 inches tall and 6 feet tall, plaques and desk ornaments too, for retiring cops and transit workers and for great teachers.

But nothing for musicians.

Steve Lopez on Nathaniel Anthony Ayers:

I told a clerk I needed a trophy with something a little different on it, like maybe a string player.

It was an unusual request, I could tell, but he went to his computer and came back with a printed image of a conductor and a musical symbol.

“We could do something like this,” he said.

I decided to put my faith in House of Trophies and began making plans for the awards ceremony. The plan was to honor a friend I’m constantly asked about by readers and also to recognize two of my buddy’s pals.

Since I began writing about Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a street musician I met almost four years ago in downtown Los Angeles, I’ve been asked to speak at mental health symposiums, skid row fundraisers, universities and high schools and all kinds of award banquets.

I usually walk away with a plaque and a bad case of guilt. All those groups really should be honoring Mr. Ayers, not me. He’s the one who’s had to muster the courage to face each day. He’s the one who has given a face to the anonymous thousands in the same fight. And he’s the one whose story, I hope, is helping de-stigmatize mental illness.

I usually pass along the awards I get to Mr. Ayers, but I thought he should have his very own, which is how I ended up at House of Trophies.

Mr. Ayers had been telling me for months that he wanted to celebrate Beethoven’s birthday on Dec. 16. I don’t know a lot of people who walk around with Beethoven’s date of birth in their heads, but nothing about Mr. Ayers is typical.

The Trophy or Award you give to an employee or associate today can motivate that person to earn your business your next Trophy or Award tomorrow. This is not hype it is just fact. We all need motivation. However, many business owners seem unaware of the fact that recognizing their own employees with a trophy or an award presentation may motivate that person enough to cause them to gain the company the next trophy or award that it receives. Obviously this simple “quid pro quo” scenario is not always the case. Numerous studies do show, though, that recognition in the form of a trophy, a plaque or any type of award, especially in conjunction with the presentation of that award, occurring in front of a group of peers or coworkers, may even rival a monetary bonus in terms of personal motivation of the particular individual. So to expand on the statement above, it should read, we all need motivation and many people respond differently to the various types of motivation that might be offered.

As scary it might be, it is true that some men evaluate their entire being by the number of toys they have collected or their ability to perform in some sport or activity, and perhaps the number of trophies they have won for that particular prowess. They may be an award winning provider for their family, a wonderful father, even a blue ribbon neighbor and highly respected member of the community. However, as you sit and talk to them, their entire focus may appear to be only and simply their golf game or their bowling or whatever passion it is that drives them to fill their trophy case. In today’s highly competitive society it is not unreasonable for men and women to be competitive among themselves. The desire to excel at whatever you do is natural, and the ability to excel in any given sport or activity outside the workplace is commendable and deserves acknowledgment, a plaque or a trophy is excellent as recognition. Therefore, whether it is the team trophy or an individual award or trophy it is quite reasonable that it might mean a lot to any given individual. It is very possible that it can give them a more positive experience in their daily lives and even help motivate them to do better work.

This is quite different from the specific recognition we are talking about in terms of singling out an exemplary employee and recognizing them with a trophy or special award. Only in this situation is it likely that the person receiving the trophy might gain the kind of motivation from the presentation that could cause him to reach his full potential for your company. Many companies have employees whose capabilities are far beyond their daily output in terms of either the quality of their work, or the volume of their work or both. Singling out an employee of this type and recognizing their abilities in front of their peers and coworkers can motivate the individual to strive to reach his or her full potential and can even motivate the other workers to attempt to improve their production in a way that will get them the same kind of recognition. We have all heard the old cynical saying: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but do it first.” We are trying to present that saying here, but in a new light: “reward your employees as you would have them reward you in return, but do it first. It just may pay off.”