Pseudonyms/Nick Names

While the first letter/last name combo makes sense in the world of biking, I don’t think it transfers well to the digital world. People in game are already either swapping last/first, using the last name as a display name, and/or other shenanigans that the first initial/last name system was clearly not made to deal with. In-game races already require that you change your last name to help in participation, but I think an extra, optional field to override your name with a pseudonym would encourage engagement between zwifters. I put a lot of effort into my own personal branding, and having my handle on display would help people recognize me, and hopefully engage with me more on Zwift. This would be a huge boon for influencers who use the game. This could be something as simple as a text field that if filled overrides the default, or more complex like in esports games with multiple fields.

In competitive games I play, usually an in-game handle allows for an optional team (which would greatly benefit in-game race organizers) and sometimes even a sponsor.

[TEAM]displayname.optionalSponsor

to compare, my in-game name is N. Goodall [703]. If I had a handle, I could swap to itsnicholaifyi or even better yet encourage my local team by adding my team handle front and center [703]itsnicholaifyi. The sponsor thing is definitely not needed, but I still think it would be cool and encourage sponsors in the Zwift world. If I got struck by lightning and became a cyclist godly enough to be sponsored by Wahoo, then having [703]itsnicholaifyi.wahoo as my display name would be pretty badass.