Read the Bartle paper. That’s just the way Achievers are.
Without the gaming elements, Zwift never would have captured my attention.
Through level 20, I did nothing but workouts up the Epic KOM followed by XP-collecting descents. I wanted the Tron bike, but I didn’t want to lose out on XP while accumulating elevation.
And, yes, those workouts are mainly over-unders, where the over and the under are the same power target, because the XP is marginally better.
When there are double XP events, I ride as much as I can…too much, really.
Does this help you understand why I feel cheated at having my collected XP devalued by 60%?
A little bit xp and leveling up or gaming the system isn’t something that’s ever appealed to me so hard for me to understand.
Hopefully you’ll get enjoyment for the new system and getting from where you are now to 100 in the quickest way possible to you. The new streak bonuses and stuff should (possibly) play in to that side of your use of zwift.
I agree with you. Gamification is a large part of why I have enjoyed Zwift. There will always be a subset of people who max out of everything and get ‘bored’ and move on to something else. Artificially bloating the longevity of level progression is an expected move to retain users because users = $$$. It’s how you do it though that comes across as good or sinister.
I really don’t think it’s helpful for those who couldn’t care less about levels to keep implying/telling those that do care about levels that they shouldn’t care.
Zwift is a game with levels, and not unreasonable for some people to care about those levels just like lots of people (though not all) in other games also care about levels.
It’s a bit like if someone complains about a route badge problem and if someone was to ask why they care about route badges. It doesn’t matter why they care - they just do.
To be fair, you’re right that Zwift levelling rewards are almost never interesting to me.
The ones that have been were the orange headband from running and the fire socks that I don’t have yet. The Scotty hat makes it three. I could maybe add in the 80s shades as I’m wearing those.
Well, you shouldn’t be angry at others who seem to be getting angry about something that they care about. I’m not suggesting that you personally are in fact angry, I’m making a wider point.
But there’s a lot of that going on in this thread.
Also continually asking different people why they care about this (not you specifically) can easily come across unintentionally as passively-aggressively suggesting that they shouldn’t care, e.g. because you would like a logical explanation for sormthing that is emotional and not logical.
I understand it. I think the core issues are of Zwift’s own making, and they’re trying to square a circle.
Sure, Zwift need to handle it somehow. In the past it wasn’t the same situation as they just bolted more levels on to the end. This time they’ve rebalanced things while also reducing the top end of the XP curve (down from 750k to 591k).
I feel that I personally would have preferred XP devaluing. I’ve been through stat squishes in other games, e.g. going from level 120 in WoW back to level 60. Those never feel as punishing as this.
The whole concept of having to re-earn previously gained XP is terrible from a user experience perspective (at least this user). I think their intentions are noble, but in practice result in many upset people.
I’ve been trying to reframe it in my mind as previously outlined, but honestly I’m struggling. Sometimes I feel relatively OK with it, other times I’m thoroughly peed off again.
Ideally, I would have preferred them to present the option when first logging in.
We’ve updated the levelling curve. What do you want to do?
[ ] earn levels from AA to BB at an accelerated rate (2x)
[*] just apply all my banked XP and put me on level BB
Everyone’s happy.
(OK, not everyone’s ever happy, but more people would be happy.)
I don’t mind having to work my way through the new levels. I haven’t updated my spreadsheet yet, to accommodate “streaks,” but at my old rate, I should reach level 100 in July 2026. That’s fine.
What irks me is that only ~40% of my banked XP will have been applied to leveling up. The rest is still banked, and the new system offers no hope of ever unlocking that in the future.
Previously, I had expected to reach level 60 next September. I knew that I would then start banking XP, but there was always hope that it would get released to me when new levels were added.
In the new system, once you reach level 100, XP gets converted to Drops at the rate of 11000XP to 50000 Drops. Those Drops are worthless today, but there’s always hope that they could be useful someday. I don’t even get that conversion for my banked XP.
I guess what I’m saying is give me the 1,750,000 Drops that would make this transition fair (not immediately, but over time), and I will be satisfied. Maybe not happy, but satisfied.
Does the new way of levelling up not help that though? Ignoring the payments made to Zwift…ok, you have enough XP banked to take you from lv 60 to lv 100. I hear you were bored stuck at the maximum level 60 so here are a BUNCH of new levels to work through, keep you intrigued, excited and healthy. Whats that? You want level 100 right now? But then you’ll get to the maximu…fine. He’s your XP. Enjoy the next 5 years stuck at level 100.
I dont get it. I love the new levels. I’m at 43. I wasnt even at 60 and SO LONG TO GO. But its all fun and healthy. Just enjoy it
I got the impression that this was supposed to be the leveling adjustment to end all leveling adjustments. The Drops payout for every 11000 XP kind of implies that. It makes the accounting for levels above 100 even more complicated, when some people have already received their bonuses for levels 101 through whatever.
But a simple statement from Zwift could restore my hope.
