Zwift should focus their efforts and retire the UCI worlds Yorkshire, Innsbruck and Richmond, and incorporate some elements of them into Watopia, (south side of) London, France and New York City as needed. Also retire Bologna and Paris, and incorporate into Crit City if and as needed.
The fact is that the UCI worlds; Yorkshire, Innsbruck, Richmond, Bologna and Paris; are just dreadfully boring - they are plain and uninteresting. Zwift has done a much better job of incorporating elements of interesting places into Watopia and France and can more easily accommodate different needs in properly game-designed environments than replicating real-life places.
Interesting take. Personally, I love all of those worlds. NYC would be the first one I think should be retired. And Iām sure there will be many other takes on this, also. At some point, though, it certainly makes sense that some of the worlds will need to be retired or revised. A few more World Championship and Olympic courses and the world rotation will just get out of control.
Innsbruck is a good race circuit and I like the climb for a easy Sunday spinā¦
but everyone has their own opinion and god forbid someone lives nearby to one of the existing words and you call it boring/rubbish etc.
Il agree that a lot if the āreal worldsā tend to miss the mark - NY & Yorkshire are both nothing worlds with very little of interest, Richmond is dated (but has the toughest race route - rollercoaster), London can get boring quickly etc
I believe they should create a sister island for Watopia, and then incorporate small real world elements into that world like they have done with the Alpe.
Iād rather see a combined world of Tokyo and Belgium with a bit of Watopia than individual worldsā¦
I like where I live, it has a lot of amazing qualities; being a good template for a Zwift world is not one of them. I was riding Yorkshire the other day just for the route badge and realised that it I normally avoid it because there is nothing interesting there. Before that I made my own Prologue and Epilogue for Tour de Zwift in Crit City and Bologna. Love riding in Crit City, itās so much fun; canāt stand how boring the course in Bologna is. I could imagine that riding in Bologna actual is fun, but UCI only got permission for a specific course.
At the end of the day, it is about focus and Zwiftās ability to maintain these worlds and make them interesting, and the ārealā virtual worlds just fall way short of Watopia. Hence my suggestion to retire the UCI worlds, treat them more as temporary event worlds that last for at most 1-2 years.
I like your ideas about a sister island to Watopia and the Tokyo and Belgium with a bit of Watopia idea. That line of thinking is all about what makes an interesting virtual world.
Cycling is rich in history. I would hate to see major changes to ir. Should they drop a few of the real life spring classics, perhaps all of the Wednesday races? Keep Paris-Roubaix. Keep the Giro and Tour de France and drop Spain?
Zwift Richmond has had historic races. Rather than erase it, take it out of major rotation. Let riders and race organizers continue to have access to it. Once a year have a scheduled main event on that course. (Tour of Yorkshire/Richmond/New York/Yorkshire). Otherwise too many people get punished by losing a cherished feature of Zwift.
Richmond is great.
What do you like if you donāt like Richmond?
Same with New York.
I like to stay on the ground.
Gotham Grinder is great.
Bologna and Crit City are event only and the folks that participate in those events like it.
I donāt use Paris much.
Dare I suggest that Zwift opens all worlds? But perhaps maintains 3 highlighted worlds on the log in screen. At the moment, with the number of people on Zwift, even 3 worlds is getting too crowded. With highlighted worlds the majority of people will select one of those worlds but if they are too crowded or the user just wants to ride a different world then they should be able to ride one of the non-highlighted worlds without having to jump through meetup creation hacks.
Years ago, we asked for all worlds to be merged together or joined by a magical portal, much like the London Underground taking you to Box Hill. The argument against it was that Strava would have a fit but, in light of its recent deletion of all but official segments, perhaps this could be revisited.
No more world-switching, everyone in the same place, an Ultimate Pretzel route, etc.
Iād rather they added link roads and additional bits such as has been done on the recent Watopia update. Keep the authentic circuits for those who wish to ride/race them, but add some new routes, interesting diversions and hidden sections. New York gets a bit of stick but at least it has a mix of real and fantasy. More like that I think would be good.
For the record the Bologna course was the Giro Prologue, nothing to do with the UCI. By the way i like Bologna, it is great for a climbing session when time is short. I quite often join an event and do 3 or 4 repeats.
Rchmond, boring? It is great for group ride sprint sessions. 8 flat laps in an hour with 8 sprints and then iāll solo off to the three short climbs for longer full gas sessions up those. A great session.
Innsbruck. Again a bit of everything. Flat with the tough kicker for multiple laps including a full gas effort up the leg snapper. Or you can hit the long climb for a 20 minute threshold effort. Do the full lap for a bit of everything.
I could go on. Although i donāt like New York others do. Every world has its place and when you look in detail at them they all have different rhythms which can be utilised for different types of solo training/ group ride dynamics. Open your mind to the possibilities.
On a serious note though, there should be a clear split between event worlds and open worlds. Watopia, France and, dare I said it, NYC/London should have the majority of development focus to improve and expand, and all four should be always accessible. Event worlds should not be part of the rotation, but you can use them for any type of event or meetup.
I race as often as I do anything else on the platform, and Richmond / Innsbruck / Harrogate have delivered some of the best race experiences.
All of the things you mention are available on Watopia; and Watopia can be made more diverse. I like having more roads, but I believe Zwiftās effort in adding more worlds and maintaining and updating an ever-increasing number of worlds would be wasted when it is simpler to add and enhance the interesting worlds (which could mean more roads for us overall).
As of today, in my Route Badge Hunt then I have completed all Regular, Event, and Rebel routes in Bologna, Paris, Richmond, and Yorkshire, and have no reason to ever visit them again. By comparison, even if Crit City is small then itās fun and I love to go there.
More worlds not less
More roads on worlds that we have , not closing them down.
As others have suggested , more routes available on the start screen ( you all know you can start any world you like dont you on any day or time ?? ) .
Zwift have commited (by CEO in a public broadcast last year ) to providing us (and I quote ) new routes and worlds every 2 months or so .
Another promise and message not followed up that well so far ā¦
I agree, more roads period. The one thing I really want is to have enough road in any of the worlds to not have to ride laps laps to get in 40 or 50kms. I would like to see each world have at least 100km of roads to play with.
I want real video rides not simulated 3d baloney. NYC is terrible because there is nothing NY about it. Grand theft auto has more realistic city recreations than Zwift. Iām saving up for a Tacx so i can use their website and real videos. ditching my Elite Suito asap
I ride Watopia like 90% of the time. It is by far the best and the # of riders on at any given time show that. More terrain in more variations than I can ride in a single sessionā¦ I still donāt want any worlds retired though. Zwift has already made an investment in creating them and on occasion I do ride them, including the UCI courses and NYC. I donāt see how they hurt anyone. What is the downside to having them in the game?
Donāt like NYC, donāt ride NYC. Pretty simple.
What I would like is to be able to pick from any of them on any given day. I know there are workarounds but just let me pick any world, on any day, at any time.
Then I think it is time to add some road to these lesser worlds, all of the UCI courses, NYC, etc. If there were more road and better variations I would ride there more often.
I think all of this should come after a dedicated off season (spring through fall in Northern Hemisphere) to bug fixes and stabilizing the system. The update roll outs every month is causing too many issues. Take at least a few months to get back to a rock solid platform ready to expand in fall.
I was riding Yorkshire the other day just for the route badge and realised that it I normally avoid it because there is nothing interesting there. Before that I made my own Prologue and Epilogue for Tour de Zwift in Crit City and Bologna. Love riding in Crit City, itās so much fun; canāt stand how boring the course in Bologna is. I could imagine that riding in Bologna actual is fun, but UCI only got permission for a specific course.