Please re-allow the gifting of one-time consumables on the MogStation

Hello there. The recent change inhibits the gifting of mounts and minions (phrased as "one-time consumables"). While I understand the desire to contain illegitimate codes, I don't think that prohibiting the gifting of mounts and minions is the way to go. No doubt the income from mounts is a great share of the MogStation revenue.

We're near Halloween and several servers and FCs were holding contests with MogStation items as a prize, normally waiting to buy the item upon knowing the winner. It's a sad happening for us that those prizes won't be able to be delivered anymore.

Agreed. More importantly to why the change was made, this has been tried by much larger platforms (like Steam) with next to no reduction in fraudulent charges and a lot of user problems. It just isn't a solution that actually works in practice.

I posted this in another thread but I want to post it here too, trying to add as much weight as I can because this really sucks ;_;

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I usually don't post on the lodestone but I feel I gotta add my weight to this thread and hope someone is listening.

Square, you don't need to kneecaps your players and gut giveaways to combat RMT. I don't know how they thought that was a good idea, but I really hope that this system will be reversed, or at least adjusted.

Maybe it would be possible to have a mogstation friend system, where you could friend people even if they have characters on different regions (as I've seen giveaways done on twitter, discord, and on twitch, not restricted to players attending an in-game event).

And even then - entirely removing the ability to gift mounts, emotes, bardings, orchestrion rolls, face paint, fashion accessories... But tales of adventure are still giftable?

Please someone at Square Enix do something :(:(:(

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This was a terrible change, emotes were the perfect small gift and we can't even do that anymore. Not to mention mounts. I'm not saying bring back the codes, since they clearly don't want to, but at least let us legitimately gift everything to our friends. Or at least let us gift people on our friends list Crysta so they can buy them themselves.

Not reply a reply to the forum, but an idea I want to give the GM as an altrenative. I wrote them a mail but they previously told me to post in forums rather than mail so i'm sending the mail here as well;

Hello, I write to you to give a second information idea.
I know you're trying to prevent second hand selling or scamming via the mogstation, and I write you because I support this decision, but also want to offer other solutions, if you ever think about them.

- preventing a same account from buying the same item more than 10 times (or different) in the saame week (or day or month)
- add expiration date (or time limit) for gift purchase (after 5 hours if the gift code is not used, the gift goes to the buyer?)

Those are two ideas me and a few friends had given the recent event.
In hope this mail reach yyou and that you give thought to the ideas.

That's all I had to say. I sugest players try to help find solutions as well, the more we have the better we can help SE in this

big agree. i don't use the forums much at all but this was so bad i had to say something. people on Twitter saying they've been reporting the same rmt accounts since heavensward but now my friends can't gift me a mount at holidays on the off chance it might slightly reduce rmt problems. hint: it won't, this new system is just unnecessarily restrictive and will end up losing them money

I want to add my voice to this thread as I've bought a lot of emotes for my friends. This is a bad change. It'll be damn near impossible to stop nefarious actors from selling stuff against SE's wishes, but this is not a good way to try to do it.

If you want to stop people from these kinds of transactions, try putting a time limiter for friendship to send to. They need to be your friend for 2 weeks or something. That will hinder sellers greatly and not stop us entirely.

this is unfortunate. i buy little gifts like minions for friends all the time, and my wife has bought me mounts in the past as christmas gifts. this is just punishing legit players, too.

I mean, it sounds like the entire reason for the change is to make the gifts trackable.

But they could still do that and not turn off these gifts. Like make the item refund (in crysta to keep their cash flow steady) if it can't be used. Or just do a check to allow the gift to be sent. People's mounts and minions collected are public knowledge on the lodestone.


I would like it if I could gift crysta directly but that's probably an even riskier option. Considering once it's in the account crysta pool, it's hard to track if it is new or old crysta used for an item. (Or sub).

I hate that I can no longer give friends mounts as gifts or prizes for glam contests. Now the only way someone could get them a mount is to basically send them cash through PayPal or something. Which probably borders the idea of rmt. So I'm sure that's not allowed.

Please allow us to gift emotes and mounts again. Get rid of codes, sure, but create a way we can gift emotes and mounts to friends (across regional logic centers too). I know the devs understand how important this game is to us, and how important friendships made through it are to us. And sometimes a gift through mog station is the most enjoyable thing we can share with our long distance friends. Especially during covid. I understand what they're trying to do, but I don't think they're fully considering how negatively this impacts players that buy gifts legit for the people they care about.

I know there's other things, but its easier for someone to accept an emote and it brighten their day, than any alternative I can think of. Anything else people may feel more guilt for accepting.

This change really sucks, as minions/emotes would be the things I'd be most likely to gift. And that's just me, this also messes with people who do giveaways and stuff, makes it way harder to just give stuff to random people. I'd have rather they spent some extra time to implement checks if the person has the item then just reactivating gifting in this state. Hopefully they walk this back or change it, at the very least I'd want to be able to gift one-time items.

Piggybacking off thread but just another suggestion on top of the others:

Allow people to buy gift codes, but require putting in the name of the recipient and their world. Let the lodestone locate the character as it would with a normal purchase. Then have the code officially emailed to the recipient from the mogstation and not shown to the buyer. Maybe include other ideas offered in the thread as well.

Anything is better than this punishment on the whole playerbase.

I know some people might mind the friend's list change. I don't mind that as much.

Removing the one time consumables is actually upsetting and may very well get me to stop using the mogstation altogether. I mainly use it these days to give friends mounts/emotes/minions for birthdays and christmas, since its not something they would probably go out of the way to buy themselves but they would still love to get.

If you insist on keeping it in this direction, maybe add some form of confirmation system if you're worried about people buying an item twice? Like it sends an email to the associated account or something and recipient confirms if they already have the item or not. If they do have the item, then the purchase doesn't go through the store. If they don't have it, all goes well. Might be easier said than done.

Its a shame, I had so many people with october birthdays I couldn't buy presents for and wanted to get them some emotes, and now that can't happen.

I'm sorry but this is a joke.

I am rarely ever on the forums and even I saw the need to complain about this change around gifting. If I want to gift my friends a mount, I should very well be in my right to do so. At the very least make it so that all items are giftable.

If people are too stupid to recognize a scam, that's on them.
This is a horrid change. Revert it.

The removal of being able to gift mounts, specifically, is a huge hit for not just FC events, but community events as a whole. Events are usually planned out in advance, with prizes carefully thought out. A big prize that really gets people involved is mounts because of how expensive they are (compared to minions, for example), sometimes its the only reason why people participate. Removing the gifting feature for items like this could result in a decrease in interest and participation.

As an alternative, maybe rather than generate a code that can be sold, have the option to directly gift the account/character, regardless of if they're on your friends list. Square Enix would still be able to track who bought the gift, as well as who was gifted it, without it affecting community events. A limit could also be placed, so that way something like a mount can be gifted a small amount of times in a short period of time - maybe the max of 5 gifts of the same item in a week, so that way in the future, that same item can be gifted, but it can't be abused in a short time span.

I'm floored that this change was made... especially when it mostly impacts cheaper emotes and mounts, rather than the story and job skips that are a recognized RMT problem. For such a pivotal, long-standing function of MMOs to suddenly be gutted like this... it's very shocking!

Adding to the disapproval of this change. I'm really disappointed and upset that I can no longer gift mounts and emotes. Doesn't seem like a very wise decision in my humble opinion.

Joining in the voices that this is rather absurd and significantly reduces my desire to use the Mogstation.

I agree. I'm not sure how much illegitimate mounts are being resold, but it hampers my FC contests a lot.
Going after run sellers, run buyers, obviously straight gil purchases, and other off-game transactions would be the better way to put these new enforcement resources.

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Originally Posted by Pyshiro

Piggybacking off thread but just another suggestion on top of the others:

Allow people to buy gift codes, but require putting in the name of the recipient and their world. Let the lodestone locate the character as it would with a normal purchase. Then have the code officially emailed to the recipient from the mogstation and not shown to the buyer. Maybe include other ideas offered in the thread as well.

Anything is better than this punishment on the whole playerbase.

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This method would work for how I previously handed out small gifts (as prizes for a screenshot contest.)

While I am glad that it will bring less store purchases in subsription game...

This will just make people in FCs or friends wire money thro paypal, steam wallet funds or (add some weird transfer sites here).

Dont think thats necessarily safer for consumer than buying from SE store, apart from steam wallet or paypal. But even then you are just gifting money that could be used for anything. And in this economy id use the money for food than mount. Cough.

So if you want the person to use that 20€ for mount, you just gotta trust it will be used for mount.

p.s. Lodestone already lists all mounts and minions available..so theres that..

I just want to add my voice to weight of those requesting a rollback of the online store changes. These will hardly be an inconvenience for those currently engaged in RMT, while very much adversely affecting the community of players who actually obey the rules!

In order to combat shoplifting, some stores in my city lock up common products like laundry detergent and deodorant in glass cases. They have decided to treat all of their customers like criminals. I am not a criminal, so I decided to shop elsewhere at stores that treat me with respect.

Being treated like the criminals you wish to stop is a bad customer experience. Please find better solutions to the RMT problem.

I agree with a lot of what's being said! Why are they punishing the majority of the player-base for a minority of people misusing the system? It just seems lazy and an easy cop-out. Besides, to me this seems like SqE will just make less money in the long-term since a lot of people enjoy gifting their friends, me included. My love language is gifts, so I get a lot of joy out of gifting mounts and emotes to my friend who can't justify their price. With this new system it just won't be the same. No surprise gifts of "here's that thing you wanted but couldn't afford." All-in-all, a really bad decision.

Edit: Already I've seen two content creators that normally gift mounts are instead... sending the money directly via paypal... I shouldn't have to say why this is a horrible idea and does the direct opposite of preventing rmt. It's actually easier for rmt sites to scam consumers now, especially for people who aren't aware of the change.

Yes, please bring it back, I have a group of friends who I often gift to and had intended on purchasing 3 of the Mechanical Lotus mounts today for us all to ride about in...instead none of us have it now.

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Originally Posted by thread-of-lain

Edit: Already I've seen two content creators that normally gift mounts are instead... sending the money directly via paypal... I shouldn't have to say why this is a horrible idea and does the direct opposite of preventing rmt. It's actually easier for rmt sites to scam consumers now, especially for people who aren't aware of the change.

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Not only for security sake but also: paypal giveaways invite bots or people who have no interest in xiv to bog up the streams. It potentially could benefit streamers views/ad revenue/follows but the money will rarely be spent on the square enix store in the end. And quality if the chat can only suffer.

As well as getting the items to genuine fans of the streamer. Especially as the trend catches on.

As someone who has used the mogstation gifting feature for its intended purpose for a long time now, i feel like this recent change is not just a slap to the face but unfairly punishing those of us who have done nothing wrong. I can understand the reasons behind the change but does not change the fact that it unfairly punishes those who did nothing wrong.

Frankly this will only hurt them in the long run and i already think i will stop buying even my own characters stuff from the store. I get enjoyment from getting my friends stuff and now that they have made that incredibly difficult, it just tells me i am better suited to spend my money else where.

Adding on here. this is a really crappy change. my husband and i would often surprise each other with little random gifts from the mog store and now will not be able to as those items were often mounts, minions and emotes. a lot of sales to be lost from this. keep the direct send on friend list, but there is no reason why any items should be excluded, except possibly story and job skips as those come with a huge gil reward attached. I assume our lodestone connection is how the friend list verify is taking place, SE can easily take it one step further cross-refernce lodestone to see mounts and minions someone has or if it is unable to be used can revert to mog-station credit.

this is a really unfortunate change i think. enough for me to actually use the forums here lol
i was hoping i could gift some of my xiv friends some in-game stuff for the holidays but now my options are pretty limited (and likely won't be used as frequently). surely there's another way to go about this in a better way that doesn't involve taking away the majority of the items that are, largely, gifted? :,)

i agree with this feedback/request

I've used the gifting feature many times before for friends of mine, it's especially unfortunate with the upcoming holiday season. I would like for the restriction to be taken away if at all possible

I agree, I hope the restriction is lifted soon. The timing of all of this really is unfortunate given that many of us have friends around the world, on different DCs, and even on completely different logical data centers (i.e. NA, EU, OCE, etc) that we want to be able to give holiday or birthday gifts to. Additionally, people who don't even play used the gift code feature to give their loved ones who do play something special.

Since this is based on a few bad incidents, I say we share a few stories about successes with the gift code feature. When has it worked well for you? What are some memories you've made because of that feature?

I'll offer mine:
My FC mates and I worked hard for a year to get a medium FC house. When we finally saved up enough gil as a whole team, my husband and I decided to give everyone on the team a special token of thanks -- the /cheers emote! That way, the day we finally stepped foot into our new FC house, we could all hit our glasses together in celebration. We purchased enough codes for the team and wrote personalized thank-you letters to each and every one of our FC friends. Finally, when we, at last, won our FC house in the lottery, we all cheered together on the front lawn. It was a really, really special moment and the emote felt even sweeter on that day!

Never have i ever thought i would need to use this forum, until now. PLEASE SE, let us gift! I wanna see my friends run around the FC house with their shiny new mounts too!!! :(

Came here to also echo my dissatisfaction with the recent changes. Me and my friends enjoy giving small gifts to each other like emotes and minions. Aside from the obvious "make friends happy" reasoning, it's also because of currency exchanges - some of us live in countries where our currencies are weaker than the EUR/USD/GBP, so friends living in the US/EU/UK tend to give me and other friends gifts like these whenever possible.

It doesn't also make sense to me that mounts and emotes are the ones being restricted in gifting when it's very well known that RMT resellers gravitate more towards level/story skips, glamours, fantasia and dyes. If these are trackable via the new system surely mounts and minions can be trackable as well.

I strongly urge SE to reconsider this decision and lift the restrictions on other one-time consumables in this new system.

mount prices being what the are is what kinda lead to this situation tho. if they weren't so expensive they wouldn't be so attractive to the bads that caused this problem.

I do not think i have ever posted to the forums before, but this change warrants my feedback.

While i understand the reasons given by SE, i do not think that this solution is adequate.
Most gifts i have ever given or received were either Mounts or Emotes; And removal of this feature, especially right before a holiday season, is incredibly unfortunate.

I would really like SE to re-examine the restrictions based on the new gifting system, and to find an appropriate technical solution to what seems to be a technical limitation.

I hate this change so much. minions and emotes were my favorite yuletide gifts to give friends. And I never buy big ticket items for myself so it was very special to receive a mount that I've wanted. :(

and why restrict emotes but not fantastias even though fantasias are so much more expensive? or Story/job jumps? smh.

100% agree. I never log onto these forums but I feel this change is dumb enough to bother logging in and expressing my opinion.

I just voiced my issue in another thread seems like these threads are everywhere...but figured I would put my two cents here in case they dont look.

1) horrible way to counter rmt just straight up hinders and hurts the players who would do this as gifts for streams and for friends. They have no idea how many of us specially roleplayers will just buy the stupid overpriced play dead emote and hand it out or the toast emote.

2) The stuff they did allow to still be gifted like story skips and boosts are probably worse.

3) They are already losing tons of sales doing this, I have two friends who wanted to buy those lotus mounts to gift to their rp partners and another one who wanted to give it as a prize during a halloween contest.....so right there alone is 60 dollars or more in sales they lost.

Fine... *sigh* since this will solve the RMT maybe someone over at sqenix could spend 10 minutes investigating the bots. ya know the ones fishing on the moon or destroying the market board by undercutting lowest price every 5 minutes.

Great job team. *slow clap*

I dont do gifting, or use the paid store. But out of curiosity, what have SE done and why?