Almost universal consensus across several rides is the new bots look sinister and want to kill all humans. Could you perhaps make them a little less murder-y please?
Unpopular opinion butā¦i like them.
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Just remember, they not real, its just a game.
They look fantastic.
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Exactly! I agree with Chris - itās just a game!
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I donāt think itās a universal consensus from the feedback Iāve seen.
Definitely fans on both sides.
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This is one of those curious visual perception situations, like that blue-black/white-gold dress phenomenon a few years back. Iāve ridden briefly with one of the new Robopacers and also looked at a bunch of screen grabs: nothing Iāve seen has made me think āmurderyā or āsinisterā or āwant to kill us allā whatsoever. But there are evidently people whose gut reactions to these avatars are strongly in the negative.
We humans are weird.
Put me in the āI like themā pile.
Robots are less scary than ghosts.
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Maybe the 8 hour ride I did was unrepresentativeā¦ I saw only jokes about Terminator and comments from dozens of people saying they looked ready to kill you and that the metal spine in particular was horrific.
Also comments on various forums including reddit to the same note:
āAn exposed spine protruding from an artificial rib cage casingā¦. Yup! Thatās what I want to follow aroundā¦ā
AND
āI do NOT like the new design. It used to be a person with an angelic glow. Now itās s a dystopian sci-fi villain. I have to focus on this for pace?! Thatās really disappointing.ā
I am fine with robots. But please make them a little more friendly looking, they are properly Terminator-sinister as of right now.
i canāt ever recall seeing a single comment saying the āghostā bots were scaryā¦ because they didnāt look like ghosts.
If YOU donāt find them sinisterā¦ fine, but that doesnāt negate other peopleās feelings. This isnāt like opting out of an 18-rated film that some might find scary and others donāt, thereās no way to opt out of seeing the pacebots so I would like to think they should like non-sinister to all. An āIām alright, Jackā mentality is not helpful.
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I havenāt seen them in the wild yet (nice summer weather season here), but from the pictures, I donāt like them at all. I propose:
- give them a human form
- call them something more friendly, I suggest Pace Partners
- also, change the homescreen-section title for them. I think itās not very intuitive, especially for new users, to associate ā24/7 group ridesā with pacer bots.
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Unless you are polling the entire userbase to see if they prefer them to the old style, stating that some people donāt like them is also not material to suggest that they need to be changed.
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New pace bots are awesome. They are easy to see and now they are truly Robo Pacers. 
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I think the gist is that the new design is a bit polarizing from an aesthetic standpoint. The old design was not as much if at all, and the question is why make this change if itās at all controversial?
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Because sanitizing everything to ensure it isnāt at all controversial makes the platform super boring.
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Expressing a difference of opinion in a discussion forum is neither helpful nor unhelpful. Since there are currently no downvote buttons for threads, people who do not agree with the argument of the thread-starter only have recourse to posting opposing arguments.
This is a purely subjective subject, so itās fair for other zwifters to say that they āfeelā differently to the thread-starter if they wish.
You donāt like the new form.
I like the new form. I didnāt dislike the old form.
Far more important to me is that Iād prefer for no further valuable developer time to be spent on the aesthetics of these avatars when there are more pressing matters to be taken care of in Zwift. Each to their own.
Iām looking at this video posted by Zwift Insider and unable to see any sinister aspects. I see a cartoonish caricature of a humanoid robot with what looks to be a (probably carefully created) neutral facial expression.
Until one of the RoboPacers actually commits a violent act, perhaps they shouldnāt be judged on their appearance. Iād like to be judged the same way. 
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Fair enough, but they already existed and never heard previously that the previous RPs were described as sanitized.
For myself, Iām indifferent. From typical view, Iām underwhelmed and from some standpoints in some lighting, they seem pretty unremarkable and just kinda odd.
Spoiler alert.
Donāt watch the film I-Robot
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Robopacer form now matches their recently changed name, from being formerly known as āpace partners.ā
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You missed the point. I suggested making them friendly robots rather than sinister ones. Not reverting back to non-robots.
Kind of making my point for me here - they absolutely remind many people of the psycho killer robots from I-Robot, thatāsā¦ entirely my point
This isnāt about ālikeā vs ādonāt likeā, its about a number of people finding them downright sinister in appearance and asking for some tweaks to make them a little friendlier.
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