One of my studio mates, Pinkyslapalot, heard about the balance concerns of the new movie trophies, and proposed an Old Maid trophy to me.
Basically, it is a trophy that has no positive attributes. You get no bonuses from owning it. You DO get a negative to your combat skills though.
So if you get the Old Maid, you have a big incentive to try to give it away.
The special abililtes of the Old Maid are:
1) It can't be sold off. You have to lose a fight to get rid of it.
2) If you lose a fight while holding it, the studio that beat you automatically gets the Old Maid.
3) If the winner of the fight has any trophy, you randomly get one of their trophies in exchange. (Optionally, the Old Maid only swaps trophies if you lose to a higher leveled studio on the glory ladder.)
This trophy is NOT a prize to hold. It is strictly a weapon, used to pry useful trophies out of higher level studios.
This trophy will tend to rise through the ranks until it gets stuck in the #1 studio. Who will have to either suck it up and keep it... or find a way to lose the trophy to a lower ranked opponent.
I call it evil! But a brilliant equalizing tool. Any studio threatening to run away with a server is going to hold the Old Maid a lot... letting other studios have a shot at catching up.
If you REALLY want to make it evil, deny studios the ability to choose to keep it. The penalty for the trophy should get bigger, the longer you hold it. Maybe the penalty gets worse by 1% per day?
I'd suggest one per server.