Highs in your eyes, Database in your face
Ah, Whodini. God, I'm old.
OK, here's something I want to do for Faceplate Addict. I want to create a database. There's already a database at www.lowdown411.com that, while not perfect, is pretty damned impressive. There are plates on there that nobody here will EVER see in their collection, so unless we use his pics or contact his source and ask to use THEIR pics, we'll never have them in our own database. I already have an email out to tacohead there, hoping we can work out something that is acceptable to both parties. I'm not interested in stealing his work or traffic, but I DO want the Ultimate 360 Faceplate Database that I can point people to, and not one that's just "good enough."
I want the database to include:
- A small picture of the faceplate, clickable to a larger version.
- A name, which would most likely include the name of the game (Stranglehold), event (E305 Rings Of Light), company (Tropicana Twister), or a physical description of the plate (Cherry Blossoms).
- The source of the faceplate (X07, GameStop, Frito-Lay web promo).
- The source of the picture (SpaceGhost's Collection, BestBuy.com)
- The location where the plates were available (Australia, Japan, Amsterdam).
- Who has it in their collections. This is where it gets fun. You can go down the list and checkmark which plates are in your collection.
- Who wants to add this plate to their collection. This is a "wishlist" of sorts. You won't just put every plate you don't have in your collection, just ones you're actively looking to pick up.
- Who has a duplicate of this that they are willing to trade?
- The rarity of the plate. http://www.lowdown411.com/FP.html has actual price-guide estimates on their list. I don't think we have anyone with the time to adequately maintain that part of a database, which would require constant monitoring of all sales outlets for "going prices." We'd just combine the rarity and pricing into one rating by $: A $ plate is available for less than retail. A $$ plate is retail price ($20-$30). A $$$ plate was a preorder item. A $$$$ plate was an event item. $$$$$ would be things like dev team plates.
There would be a seperate type of listing for custom plates. Custom plates would include:
- The creator of the plate
- How much the plate sold for.
I wouldn't include who bought it as a search criteria, but I would include a note section for any relevant facts, like "This was made for George Lucas and is in his collection." Or, in the case of one of my Heroes plates, "These plates sell for $40, but this particular plate was featured in Official Xbox Magazine and sold for $200."
Now here's where having this as a database and not just one, big list comes into play.
- I want to know what faceplates were released in Japan. I have a friend in Japan and I want to ask him to look for these plates for me.
- I want to see all the faceplates that were available free with preorders.
- I want to see all the faceplates in Kamshaft's collection.
- I was looking at this cool Eternal Sonata plate with Chopin on it. I never got this plate. I see that there are forty-three people who have this in their collections, and three people who have duplicates of this plate that they're willing to trade. One of them is moltenluv. I search under her name and find the plates she has on her wishlist. Oh, she's looking for the Mass Effect plate and I have two of those. You could then contact her about arranging a trade.
- I want to find all the plates that are common and add them to my collection first, and then search for the ones that are less common and so on, until I get to the ones that are really hard to come by. That's the fastest way to build a collection.
- I want to find all the really rare plates and just build a collection of those. I don't want to waste my time and money buying plates that are a dime a dozen. That's how to build the most envious collection.
Then, on top of all of that, we can have a thread where we can just show off the plates in our collection all in one place, or create a visual "have/want" list to use in trading.
If anybody has anything else they think should be included in the Ultimate Faceplate Database, please post it here and let's discuss them. Let's discuss the whole idea. Also, if anyone has any suggestions about making this a reality, like web-accessable software, hosting, formatting, etc. share, share SHARE! lol.
Ultimate database purpose
While I agree about the ultimate database purpose I think that giving too much info will slow/kill the general(my) faceplates business. For example I don't want people to know how many faceplates of XXXXX game/type have been made. This can affect the price on some (alot) faceplates.
