Pokemon Go fans snub “weird” scrapped feature
A Pokemon Go AR feature is being scrapped, and fans are disinterested due to how it was rarely used or implemented into the game’s mechanics.
The Pokemon fanbase is extremely vocal regarding features being scrapped from games. The Dexit controversy might be the biggest example, but anything that gets removed, such as Mega Evolutions or Z-Moves, causes a wave of backlash from the community.
These complaints are often tied to the community’s larger issue, with the series becoming easier, such as the Experience Share becoming mandatory. Not that they ever come to much, as the Nintendo Switch Pokemon games are among the best-selling entries in the series.
Pokemon Go is an ongoing game, so it’s rarer for content to be cut. Instead, content tends to be recycled as part of seasonal events, giving players a reason to return over time. If anything, Pokemon Go and Pokemon Home are the last bastions for cut content from the mainline games.
NianticPokemon Go players aren’t interested in AR experiences
A post on TheSilphRoad Reddit has shared information from Niantic about how the Shared AR Buddy Experience feature is being removed from Pokemon Go in a future update. Surprisingly, fans aren’t concerned by the loss of this feature, due to how little it was used.
“I dont want to scare them away from implementing new features, but AR stuff isn’t what people want from the game,” one user wrote, while another said, “All two people that ever used this feature will be extremely dissapointed after reading that news.”
“I’ve used the Shared AR Buddy Experience function all of two times,” another user wrote, “The first was when it was first implemented, to see what it looked like.”
“The second was to try and take a group picture that included my friend’s Landorus, to see if that would satisfy the “take a picture of a Landorus” research. It did not count. No big loss to me if shared AR goes away.”
The Shared AR Buddy Experience allows multiple players to take photos of their Pokemon. The reason it hasn’t been embraced is due to the difficulties in getting multiple players together just for regular Pokemon Go, even for Party Play.
Pokemon Go is such a natural fit for AR functions that, surprisingly, fans haven’t embraced it. The main problem is that it doesn’t really fit into the main gameplay loop that fans enjoy. In fact, fans have called for AR functions to be removed in the past.
Removing features from a game can potentially cause issues, so the developers must have an important reason to cut it. Then again, if the usually passionate Pokemon fans are glad to see the back of it, maybe there’s no harm in banishing the Shared AR Buddy Experience to oblivion.