Pokemon Go fans livid as avatar update “nerfed” women
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 has changed 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 the Pokemon Go Reddit has 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.”
“How did they go back in time and make it look like this was released in 2005 lol. Oh man, there’s no definition and it’s so creepy,” one user lamented, while another joked, “They snatched your waist…get it??? Please someone tell me they get it!”
“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 are livid 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.
The Pokemon series has always had a bad record regarding character customization options despite it being a highly requested feature by fans. The changes made to Pokemon Go’s avatars are especially bad, as you’re meant to stick with them for longer than you would a protagonist from a mainline game.
