A new digital game for cyclists to play

deadhead1971

Strava-bashers look away now!

I came across a new app/game which only launched a couple of weeks ago. It looks interesting, though it's hard to really tell because it's so new and hardly anyone is on it yet.

I posted some thoughts and lots of screenshots here
http://www.scarletfire.co.uk/riderstate

rolf_f

Not an uninteresting idea though a lot of areas would inevitably just end up being dominated by commuters!

Your point about Strava getting stale is a good one - but it would be very easy for Strava to deal with simply by resetting all the KOMs every year.

I think this game would suffer from the same problem - ultimately it is going to be presumably fairly easy for you to dominate your home turf and much harder to dominate somewhere only a little further away. So it will quickly settle down to a not much change situation.

homers_double

I don't use strava to see if I've beaten anyone, simply to track my ride distance and speeds.

Max speed is more important than average speed 8)

BrandonA

I can't see the challenge or point to this.

I think a large part of cycling is variety. I like mix the routes up to keep the rides fresh and offer up different challenges. The only road I tend to ride frequently is therefore the bits around my house.

People who do well in certain quadrants will be either people riding close to their house/work or as Ralf said commuters riding the same routes each day.

MayMyRide has the concept of Guru which is the person that rides a route/segment the most. I only used this site a bit before moving to Stava but I always found this concept completely pointless and my speed over a segment/route was more relevant. People didn't flock to this site to become Gurus so my do this new one for a similar reward.

I'll continue to limit the uploading of my rides to JUST Strava, Connect, Training Peaks website and WKO. I don't think I need a fifth.

homers_double

Is four not just a bit overkill?

sloppyschleckonds

homers double wrote:

Is four not just a bit overkill?

adr82

BrandonA wrote:

I can't see the challenge or point to this.

I think a large part of cycling is variety. I like mix the routes up to keep the rides fresh and offer up different challenges. The only road I tend to ride frequently is therefore the bits around my house.

The blog post addresses this, if you read it through:

As you get into it, RiderState starts to feel like a game, rather than just an app to record rides. It feels like cycling your way through a big strategy board game like Risk. You’re going to consider your route to maximise your domination of the map. This is an interesting contrast to the short, sharp shock provided by Strava segments. Riderstate will reward frequent, high mileage, adventurous riders. As time goes by and other people ride the same roads as you, Riderstate will get interesting

How well it works in practice is still very much open to question, but I think it's nice that you don't have the Strava focus on (often ridiculously short and/or unsafe) segments created by people with more competitiveness than common sense.

Joeblack

I don't see the problem with strava, people use it for different things, some to track their Milage speeds etc, some for pb's and some to compete, with regards to unsafe segments iv always thought of it this way, if you know the segment is there you decide wether to push a bit harder during that part of the ride or you don't. And if you don't know it's there then it's a added bonus if you do well.

This is all coming from someone who has only ever had one kom and a couple of top 10's but it's still a enjoyable app.

sparklehedgehog

Rolf F wrote:

Not an uninteresting idea though a lot of areas would inevitably just end up being dominated by commuters!

Your point about Strava getting stale is a good one - but it would be very easy for Strava to deal with simply by resetting all the KOMs every year.

I think this game would suffer from the same problem - ultimately it is going to be presumably fairly easy for you to dominate your home turf and much harder to dominate somewhere only a little further away. So it will quickly settle down to a not much change situation.

I think strava should have a filter for all time leaderboards and calendar year

roger_merriman

sparklehedgehog wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Not an uninteresting idea though a lot of areas would inevitably just end up being dominated by commuters!

Your point about Strava getting stale is a good one - but it would be very easy for Strava to deal with simply by resetting all the KOMs every year.

I think this game would suffer from the same problem - ultimately it is going to be presumably fairly easy for you to dominate your home turf and much harder to dominate somewhere only a little further away. So it will quickly settle down to a not much change situation.

I think strava should have a filter for all time leaderboards and calendar year

Well you already have all time, this year, month, week, day.

adr82

Joeblack wrote:

with regards to unsafe segments iv always thought of it this way, if you know the segment is there you decide wether to push a bit harder during that part of the ride or you don't. And if you don't know it's there then it's a added bonus if you do well.

The problem is the unsafe segments are public, so anyone who happens to ride through them and then checks their ride stats can be tempted to go for the KOMs, particularly if they happen to get a top 10 without even trying. It's particularly bad in the case of ridiculous city centre segments which are frequently a bare 20-100m long, feature words like "blast" and "dash" and "sprint" in their names ( :roll: ), are totally flat and are invariably located on busy/narrow streets with traffic lights and various other hazards. At least with this new app going out for a bout of 30mph red light jumping in your local city centre isn't going to result in any rewards.

Initialised

roger merriman wrote:

sparklehedgehog wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Not an uninteresting idea though a lot of areas would inevitably just end up being dominated by commuters!

Your point about Strava getting stale is a good one - but it would be very easy for Strava to deal with simply by resetting all the KOMs every year.

I think this game would suffer from the same problem - ultimately it is going to be presumably fairly easy for you to dominate your home turf and much harder to dominate somewhere only a little further away. So it will quickly settle down to a not much change situation.

I think strava should have a filter for all time leaderboards and calendar year

Well you already have all time, this year, month, week, day.

You can give a user features, but you can't make them click :roll:

sparklehedgehog

Just found it, thanks!