After one month of running in Zwift, the verdict is simple: I LOVE IT!
Ran just over 100 miles, completed all route badges except the gravel route that appears to be a once per year possibility, did the Tour of Watopia, and one week of the 16 week training schedule. Couple more miles and I will be level 10. Joined the ZLDR Discord and will be running with them when the training schedule allows for it.
The routes are absolutely beautiful. The fact that I’m sharing the world with actual people is great, and the gamification part of it is exactly my thing.
Roberto Viola is working to add my Virtufit TR200I treadmill to the QZ Domyos app and presumably other models will also benefit.
And all of it is completely free.
Cyclists pay $180 per year and what they are getting extra for it is not that much, I think.
I decided to write this post because there appears to be quite a lot of disappointment in the running (and rowing 
) community. Clearly all is not perfect, and never will be, but it took me some reading to understand where it came from.
It seems to be poor (if any) management of expectations that has been putting people off. From the outside, Zwift appears to be missing a clear vision for its product and as a result has a very hard time explaining their intentions, choices and possibilities.
A company that has this bit mastered is Coffee Stain. They really know what their game Satisfactory stands for and in their Q&A and on their forum they actively engage with the community. If a much voted for idea doesn’t fit the vision or priorities, they explain why and close the request. The community has the feeling that they are valued and listened to, because they are.
This takes only a couple of hours per week and gains value worth a multitude of that time. The community managers shoot occasional videos that also do wonders. Again nothing fancy (most of the time), just showing what they’re up to and that they do care.
I really hope that Zwift can learn from this kind of example.
In the meanwhile…
Run(?) on!