Some people really like XP and levels. This thread is mostly for them. It’s also completely fine to not care about it very much or at all, but that’s not particularly relevant to the topic. You can’t convince people to stop liking what they like. Zwift dug this hole but removing XP won’t undig it.
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I’m quite the critic of the XP shenanigans and complain plenty about things such as accessibility and the number of bugs; but I wouldn’t go that far! 
I suspect you don’t really mean it, but I do get where you’re coming from. It does seem at times that decisions aren’t always made with our best interests (and feedback) in mind; as if they know better regardless of what we say.
It reminds me sometimes of a well-known episode in the life of World of Warcraft, where J Allen Brack responded to a question at BlizzCon suggesting that they (Blizzard) knew better than the customers what customers wanted.
Of course, some years alter Blizzard did indeed release WoW Classic, and it turned out to be very popular.
I’m not sure there’s a single well-thought-out vision for Zwift in terms of player progression, and that’s why we see the piecemeal tinkering we have over 9 or so years. I do think there are people within Zwift who’d love to see it sorted out once and for all, but they’re not necessarily the people who can make it happen.
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My feeling is they have painted themselves into a corner by making banked XP and accelerated leveling an absolute product requirement. With that requirement I don’t think there are any good, simple, elegant solutions available so it will remain a mess unless they change their minds about that, which is looking unlikely.
Zwift Insider article is up.
I think it’s pretty cowardly of Zwift that they leave it to @Eric_Schlange_ZwftIn to have to explain it. I know he is practically a Zwift employee but it really feels like they knew there may be a bit of a backlash as there was in April so they just sneaked it out hoping people wouldn’t notice. We know that when Zwift releases things, ZI usually has an article ready to go. The fact that there has been a delay here between go live and any kind of announcement points to the idea that Zwift were trying to do this without anyone noticing or at least to minimise any push back. Really poor from Zwifts perspective.
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And we are still waiting for that OFFICIAL announcement from Zwift.
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initially they only went up to level 25
In fact, there are posts on this forum asking for levels beyond 20:
Even then, way back in December 2015, a poster said “in many games like Diablo 3 the leveling up never ends.” while another notes that there was a previous increase from 15-20.
OK, Zwift was still in beta at that point, so I guess Eric’s article is only talking about once Zwift was out of beta.
Point is, this has been an ongoing issue for 9 years!
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I agree that leveling and all that really doesn’t matter. Some people think it’s important, to each their own I suppose. And this change is for the better IMO. But the issue here is the terrible communication and spaghetti code. Like with the price increase - it isn’t that $5 a month is that big a deal for the vast majority of users, but it’s the principle. The product is bad, the company is bad, communication is bad. Just last week we had the reappearance of two steering bugs and the black square issue, which were dealt with months ago. It’s unfortunate that there’s no real competition.
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Why did Zwift choose to rejigger the levels without an announcement?
Unfortunately I can’t say, because I’ve been privy to internal talks on the subject and have signed an NDA.
And then has the perfect excuse to say don’t shoot the messenger
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MyWhoosh is doing the job for me I’ve uninstalled Zwift from my laptop
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That’s a bit of an overkill. Even if you don’t like Zwift, can always use it when they have new routes or if MW servers go down.
But not uninstalled the forum from your browser? 
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But then if i wanted to do more than 25km I’d have to pay the new extortionate price
No i enjoy the entertainment
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You would have to wait till the next month or do 1 long ride so you don’t need to log out.
But 25 free KM is better than 0.
Same here. MW is doing the job, meanwhile opening yet another box of popcorn and enjoying ZHQ desperate actions and ignorance against their customers 
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After 8 years I’ve grown tired of their shenanigans. Due to total lumbar fusion indoor riding is all I have. The level ups are what motivated me. Everytime they tinker with it in the end never seems to suit them.To have a website announce their products changes and go radio silent is beyond customer betrayal. Never thought I would look elsewhere, but this may be the proverbial straw as they say. Shame on ZwiftHQ.
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The way Zwift handles things pertaining to criticism reminds me of a South Park episode about cable companies…
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Hey Zwifters,
I don’t know everyone here yet, so I’ll introduce myself. My name is Mark Cote, and I lead the product team at Zwift. You’re right to call us out on the poor communications regarding changes to Zwift’s XP and levels. We really dropped the ball in two-way comms since Jon Mayfield spoke up a couple months back.
First off, I apologize and promise to do better here. We are committed to a deeper relationship with you all, and are constantly reading your comments and feedback. We’re deep in collaboration with many of you on Zwift Racing Score and several other topics, especially here on the forums.
As Jon said back in May, we don’t want to repeatedly adjust XP and levels, but we received valid feedback from many Zwifters that adjustments to our last XP and leveling update were necessary. The revised XP/level curve we just released is the system all Zwift staff have been trialing for two months and confidently feel it does two things:
- Helps to commit and engage Zwifters early in their careers with more rapid level-ups
- Increases the challenge of leveling up later in your career.
We want levels to be a core part of your status, what you strive to achieve, and want to celebrate. Following this update, we don’t intend to make large changes to the existing leveling curve.
Looking ahead, based on your feedback, we are considering additional ways we can expand career progression on Zwift such as expanded levels or a prestige system. Additionally, we are updating our support article to better illustrate the leveling experiences for new Zwifters and for Zwifters that are transitioning from the previous level curve to the current one. We’ll follow up in this thread to let you know once it is available.
Our mindset here is that our most passionate Zwifters should be treated as insiders. We intentionally share a bit of our roadmaps to both excite and engage but, ultimately, to ensure what we’re building serves Zwifters, both seasoned and new to the platform. We’re not perfect but are striving to improve with each release and feature.
Thanks for constantly pushing to make us and Watopia better. We’re fortunate to have such passionate members of this awesome community.
Mark
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I’ve been on Zwift for 9 years and was only just about level 48 when the changes first came in December.
I don’t need any increased challenge in a “career” that has been ongoing for 9 years and sees me less than halfway through.
I have about 480k XP but am on the level equivalent of about 230k XP. This does not feel good in any way. It feels more like a punch in the face.
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