Overnight some of you would have been advised by RHQ that they are changing the way they do the rankings.
Previously they have been a free service funded by the ad revenue at the website. This is now going to change.
From April 1, the service will now no longer be free for users. There are two ways that it can be paid for. Firstly, an affiliate (effectively sponsor) can pay to provide the service.For example Battlefoam is paying for 40k rankings in the USA, UK and Oz. The second option is that individuals will have to be to register and be ranked. This is slated to cost each individual USD $12.00 per annum. If you do not pay your ranking score will not be published.
This is a real shame.
Up until 2009 I ran the NZ rankings on a spreadsheet using the same formula as RHQ. It was a bit of work but it ensured that we had our own rankings. And it was free. RHQ offered to take it over in 2010 and have maintained it ever since.
I don't think that there is much potential for a Sponsor to come through for New Zealand. I might be wrong and if anyone knows one that would be good to hear about. That means if we want RHQ to continue to maintain NZ Rankings it will need to be funded by the community.
I believe that the individual funding option is doomed to fail as unless there is a critical mass then the rankings will be meaningless and lose what ever initial support they have over time. This means that the way forward - in an RHQ world - for NZ might be through crowdfunding.
I have asked Andrew Galea how much RHQ would require to maintain the 40k/Fantasy rankings for NZ and if the some was reasonable I would seek to crowd fund it through Fields of Blood. If there was enough local support to continue RHQ based rankings then it would be up to local gamers to fund it.
If, for whatever reason, the RHQ route wasn't viable, I would seek a local solution to maintaining NZ rankings for 40k and Fantasy. As the total number of events in NZ GW games was less than 30 last year (Fantasy 17, 40k 11), it would not be too hard to go back to a local solution - be it blog or website based. Obviously it would not necessarily have all the bells and whistles of RHQ but it would at least be "ours".
I'll let you know when I hear back from RHQ.
Really disappointing they have gone down this route. I cannot see the individual subscription ever working. You basically now have to pay to be ranked... and the ranking holds almost no value any more since it dosn't rank everyone, unless they pay.
ReplyDeleteIts a shame they couldn't maintain the status quo through advertising incomes. I was already a little disappointed about having the requirement for everyone to register.
Good opportunity for a community driven project to get launched to replace this.
It did look like it was heading that way though as the scale of the site and number of events/players has grown. I didn’t have any issues with registering (I was already) and don’t really have an issue with paying but your right that I can’t see the majority of NZ gamers (who are tight anyway! Ha ha) paying to be on the rankings site. That would take away the validity of it which is a shame. I don’t want to make Masters just because players ahead of me didn’t pay or weren’t registered. Crowd funding through the tournament scene sounds like a good idea Pete let me know if you need any support from Auckland.
ReplyDeleteWould an extra $ surcharge on the registration fee for every tournament entry help fund it? If not, what would it take/cost for you - Pete - to restart and maintain your own ranking system via FoB again?
ReplyDeleteGermany/Europe has a nice and well established website to organise tournaments http://www.tabletopturniere.de/index.php
ReplyDeleteThey even included USA into the supported countries. I will drop them an email and see what it would take for NZ to be supported as well.
John Murrie makes a fair suggestion, and I agree with everyone else that it is a bummer that we have to pay. Although, having said that, I am still quite happy to pay the one off cost for the year or join in a community/crowd funded scheme.
ReplyDelete- Adam Richards
Andrew (RHQ) has come back to me with the cost of setting up as a crowd-funded affiliate to maintain 40k and Fantasy for NZ.
ReplyDeleteMy initial impression is that it is probably more than the NZ market could reasonably be expected to pay but I am going to discuss more detail.
Suffice to say however that the NZ rankings won't disappear. It will either be through RHQ or if that doesn't work out some type of local fix. This would also include FOW rankings
More details as they come to hand.
I would rather have the extra money go towards swankier trophies (ala FOB 40k), than the rankings. Is it used for anything apart from determining masters invites?
ReplyDelete?? What extra money?
DeleteWould an extra $ surcharge on the registration fee for every tournament entry help fund it? If not, what would it take/cost for you - Pete - to restart and maintain your own ranking system via
DeleteJohn Murrie makes a fair suggestion, and I agree with everyone else that it is a bummer that we have to pay. Although, having said that, I am still quite happy to pay the one off cost for the year or join in a community/crowd funded scheme.
I was talking about that
We're trying to lock in a couple of things at the moment, everyone hold tight for the meantime, the end is not neigh!
ReplyDeleteMaybe something like the Aussie rankings site?
ReplyDeletehttp://skstudio2012.wix.com/wargame