Obviously this would be a huge addition to Zwift, but wouldn’t it be cool if you could use your drops to purchase a virtual land lot along a Zwift route?
So much potential…
use drops to buy buildings, decorations, landscaping, signage, etc.
clubs could buy larger lots (members pool their drops?) to have a clubhouse, “go” (instantly) or ride to clubhouse, then go inside with an avatar. See other people’s avatars. Chat while in the clubhouse becomes local to the clubhouse (like club chat in companion app)
real world companies could buy virtual land to have virtual showrooms or stores
use drops to purchase tickets to events at clubhouses/stores/stages/arenas
Gaah. Sorry, I wouldn’t want this at all. Land developers in Zwift? I get sad IRL every time I see undeveloped land, pasture, woods, etc getting paved over and built on. Not exaggerating, I would quit Zwift in a heartbeat if new buildings started popping up all over the place.
But it’s not, is it? It’s more pitched as a social riding game. Zwift didn’t even have workouts in the beginning (IIRC they came a little after Richmond was launched).
Of course, some people using it for training, but plenty of us don’t. More social aspects would be an enhancement for me.
I did think it would be somewhat fun for the game to have a coffee shop which was a representation of both the forum and a rest stop for people in the game. Everyone who is actively posting on the forum has an avatar in the coffee shop, and the tables are the individual threads under discussions - you can see/hear what people are posting. Your avatar would move to another table if you answer a different question on the forum etc. They would time out and leave the coffee shop after x minutes of inactivity. Cyclists who want a break in Zwift can come by the coffee shop and join in the conversation Each ‘category’ of the forum could be it’s own section of the coffee shop etc. - racing, bug reports etc.
There could be a “group ride” area with tables for people who want to ride at certain w/kg rates - just sit down at the 2.0w/k group table, when those tables get enough people sitting/chatting they decide to start their ride etc. Kinda like a passive match making area.
For folks that are in-game - There could be a ‘race challenge’ room where people sit down to challenge others to certain things (peak power, 30s sprint, volcano KOM), and when those tables fill up enough they can decide to start the challenge.
I mean, that said, I’d rather them work on a lot of other things first, but there’s probably something fun in there somewhere.
A meeting place could be cool. But an explosion of development, billboards, flashing signs, plopping down strip malls alongside the roads, all of that is repulsive. If one of the existing small buildings was a TARDIS-like (bigger on the inside) virtual meeting place? Okay. Could be neat.
In fact–if I had been making this all from the start, I would have considered all Drops spending to have to be done at specific locations–bike shops in Zwift Ride there on your current bike, buy a new one, ride away. But things like that could be done with any of the small scattering of unobtrusive buildings already in place.
Eplay running is trying to implement this right now,. they use it mostly to generate income because the game is so crappy, they have to tone down the graphics because it is a battery killer when doing outside workouts. I have contacted Zwift in the past about trying to attract outside billboard sponsorship for in game events or races as it would bring in income needed to put towards game upgrades. But I never did hear back from them, so I guess money is not needed.
I don’t think we need Zwift to turn into a minecraft framework type of game, and if we want social hangouts, open up some discord channels as roadside are going to be nothing but resource hogs on users devices.
Each ‘category’ of the forum could be it’s own section of the coffee shop etc. - racing, bug reports etc.