Originally Posted by mstateglfr

I love zwift for what it is- a way to entertain and motivate during an otherwise awful time.
Time spent on the trainer is simply terrible without something engaging. Zwift provides that engagement.

I use a dumb trainer plus cadence and speed sensor. Its a $40 way to get hooked into the Zwift world.
A 40" tv that was from some holiday deal for cheap has made a big difference in the experience. One of our family's laptops is used(I loaded zwift on multiple to make sure I have access regardless of what is now being used for work/school at home) and connected to the TV with an hdmi.

There is a lot for Zwift to still improve on still, as the UI is headshakingly bad in some ways. Positive side is that you will inevitably see improvements as you use the system!
- you can't go to a race from the home screen. Absurd.
- you can't go back to the home screen and choose a new route or world once you've started the game. Absurd.
- its super inconvenient to change your bike and gear since you have to do that when in a world and riding. Absurd.
- races are a total wild west where people well outside the categories ride still for who knows what reason(s). Absurd.

To that last point, I did a 10mi crit race today and rode in the D category as I average a middling 215 watts on Zwift. D is for anyone who is under 2.4watts/kg.
The winner averaged 579 watts with a 5.39w/kg average. You have to go all the way down to 33rd place to get to someone who averaged under 2.4w/kg.
In the initial official results, Zwift needs to just toss out results that end up being higher than the category limit.

But in the end, race results are all meaningless and is simply for fun. I work harder in that 25-30min than I ever do on my bike for that same amount of time when riding outside.

I have lost weight, picked up strength, and ride faster earlier in the season.
I am a fan of whatever tricks put mind enough for us to improve our health and wellbeing. If its a video game that does the trick, then great!