As the Zwift community explodes I thought I would offer an observation on the soul of Zwift. Zwift.com sums it up and gets the priority right:
- Zwift is social
- Zwift is competitive
- Zwift is your training partner
Now the Zwift team has come up with a great workout mode and by all accounts it is going to be a winner. Awesome stuff, great job! That being said, however, the Zwift team might want to look at those website priorities. It is the social nature of Zwift, and for some its competitive nature, that makes Zwift unique. Can you say “events”? Can you say “clubs”? Can you say “teams”?
Judging by the community response to providing solutions to this missing element in the Zwift website/application these are the compelling propositions in Zwift’s future. Sure people will use workout mode, they will pay for it, but in a way it runs contrary to Zwift’s soul. It is anti-social.
Zwift, and its members, want events. That is Zwift’s soul. That Eric Min is what is going to keep people using Zwift, month after month, year after year. Tam Burns has outdone himself with the World’s Event. Jonathan Pait has constructed a team’s site that is getting lots of use. The community is crying out for this functionality.
This is not a knock on the Zwift team. What you have done is amazing. This is just a bit of nudge to the Zwift team to prioritize these items. Charlie Issendorf help us champion these efforts and make them a proper part of Zwift. The sooner the better.
#RideOn in all those great events this weekend. I am jealous I didn’t have enough rest to do them (been doing to many Zwift events it seems). I will, however, be a spectator as Nathan Guerra and GCN have shown just how interesting Zwift events are to watch.
