Michael Abrash on Quake: "Finish the product and you’ll be a hero."
I got the hero speech too, once.  If anyone ever mentions the word "heroic" again and there isn't a burning building involved, I will start looking for new employment immediately.  It seems that in our industry it is universally a code word for "We're about to exploit you because the project is understaffed and under budgeted for time and <i>that is exactly as we planned it</i> so you'd better cowboy up."<p>Maybe it is different if you're writing Quake, but I guarantee you the 43rd best selling game that year also had programmers "encouraged onwards" by tales of the glory that awaited after the death march.