A new update for Pokemon Go is changing the appearance of player avatars, leading to complaints about the alteration of female character models.
A polarizing update for Pokemon Go is gradually rolling out worldwide, which haschanged aspects of the graphics, including the backgrounds and avatars. If you haven’t noticed a change, it likely hasn’t gone live in your region.
A user on thePokemon Go Reddithas created a thread complaining about the changes made to the avatars. These include flattening the hips and waist of the female character model, which some users have referred to as “nerfing women.”
“Only Niantic could release a visual update and make it look like a 2000s graphic,” one user wrote, while another said, “JUST AWFUL!! I still can’t get over how bad my gal looks now. I refuse to spend any Poke coins trying to look semi-decent.”
“Maybe if we complain enough, they’ll change it back,” one user said, “Reading about people’s complaints (without pictures), I thought, “It can’t be that bad.” I saw this post and was like: “FLIPPIN FLOTSAM, WHAT’S THAT?!”
“Like, I already wasn’t too fond of the avatars, but this is worse. I wish they had the avatars in the style of the character models in Pokemon X and Y.”
This thread isn’t the only one complaining, as the major Pokemon social media accounts arelivid with the changes to Pokemon Go’s avatars. The feeling is that the models look way worse, along with some paid content (hopefully temporarily) removed from the game in the process, including poses.
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The Pokemon series has always had a bad record regarding character customization options despite it being a highly requested feature by fans. Thechanges made to Pokemon Go’s avatarsare especially bad, as you’re meant to stick with them for longer than you would a protagonist from a mainline game.
Scott Baird is a Games Writer on Dexerto’s UK team, specializing in Pokemon, Baldur’s Gate, Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, and Magic The Gathering, and Nintendo games. He also has bylines at Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, Screen Rant, The Gamer, and TopTenz.
