Originally Posted by
Athens80
If TrainerRoad is a needle in the eye, PeriPedal, PerfPro and GoldenCheetah are too. Those are substitutes for Zwift if you are interested only in erg-mode-like interval workouts (and plans, at least in TrainerRoad and PerfPro). Those will do fine if you strictly want a computer telling you how many watts to put out for how long. Like what people lament about Froomey's style uphill -- do we like seeing him staring at a stem to put out X watts for Y minutes?
In those other training tools there's no scenery, no terrain, no social aspect (outside of going to a PerfPro studio) with riders around the world, no racing or group rides or drafting or accelerating to pass that next rider, or chatting, no sprint jerseys or KOM jerseys or segment PRs, no climbing to the radio tower with Hayman or Boswell or Cavendish, no gamified challenges, etc. etc.
This is the different tastes sort of thing - I don't give a crap what my trainer program looks like because I'm watching Netflix. Zwift would be much more compelling if it actually included a game of any other sort. They could have, as suggested, a Mario Kart clone, they could have a capture-the-flag version, they could do something like the Expresso bikes which had a crappy game where you ride around and grab coins so that you can destroy Chinese dragons (ok but make a better game than that, which was crap). Yes, for all of these they would have to figure out controls for steering and some number of actions. It would be far more compelling though.
But you talk about needle in the eye - to me, riding a bunch of laps of a pre-determined course against people who may or may not be cheating seems incredibly boring. It seems to be the right cuppa for a bunch of people though. But there are options, and lots of them, for people who want trainer workouts.