I took my first ride yesterday, and noticed that my avatar seems to prefer all of “his” climbs to be done in the saddle. The other avatars seem to like to jump out of the saddle quite a bit more often. I like to jump out of the saddle on an extended climb more to stretch, but also to power up. Is this preference controllable in Zwift? If so, how?
its based on cadence or power.
lower you cadence to 60 rpm and your avatar will come out of the saddle.
start sprinting and your avatar will go into the sprint animation (out of the saddle).
Ive noticed it can also vary depending on the view. When reviewing a ZWIFT race Ive seen the recording showing me out of the saddle climbing at a high cadence … when from my animation view I was seated at high cadence.
Any more info on this? I notice on brief inclines everyone else pops off their seat but I stay seated. I know they are not all the sudden dropping their cadence below 70 for a short blip of a hill.
My guess is that all other avatars are “programmed” to act in specific ways at specific times and specific conditions, such as what you are seeing here. When there are lots of riders around you and everyone is going up an incline, the surrounding avatars animations automatically changes to standing.
I’m guessing Zwift simplifies things by having all the riders in the same animation rather than update each individual rider to their actual animation in order to make it seem that the group is moving along in rhythm.
Perhaps it is also a coding issue to again simplify things. Think about all that data that has to be transmitted when you are in a large group as opposed to just riding solo with fewer people riding around you.
I wouldn’t sweat this. I don’t believe the goal of Zwift is to provide an exact simulation of cycling. It’s a social tool to help you get through riding indoors 
Not sweating it (too much 
)…just curious and wondering if I have a different setting from everyone else or something.
Nope, no setting or trainer, etc. will have an effect it seems.
Little things like this are a distraction. I have a whole list of little things that I wish Zwift would take care of. I just try to ignore them all and get through my workouts