Emote Monetization needs to Stop.

[HyperiusUltima]

This here.

I'm going to be frank with people: We have not gotten a new emote to use in a long time that isn't monetized by the XIV Store. Why has this trend continued? Probably because people buy what they want. They see something cool, they'll probably get it - but we're paying like $7.00 USD for an emote - and that's before whatever tax that's involved depending on where you live.

I took a look at emotes, and the monetization has gotten so bad that a majority of emotes after 5.55(21/38 - a whopping 55%!) are monetized. And sure, we can try to count those that are involved in events - but what then? Your average player that runs the MSQ, doesn't do side content(if it doesn't appeal to them), and doesn't raid or do Beast Tribes hasn't gotten a new emote for THREE YEARS.

Of course, if we're looking at Events, sure: people will probably do them - but that doesn't say much for people who most recently have joined the game and missed out on them because they're getting into the experience. This whole Fried Egg debacle is cosmetic, sure, but it says a lot about how they're handling our Emotes.

Firstly, they're high quality, animated emotes that actually are pretty nice. The Fried Egg one is something I'd expect from a CUL quest or something, but NO. IT'S ON THE STORE. We already have an overly priced mount on the store that everyone wanted to get at Endwalker(Yes, the Whale), but remonetizing certain things just...it's a kick in the pants - and don't even get me started on the Meister Figures(which aren't actually Mastercrafts given the response people have given from previous problems with them) because those are stupidly priced just for an emote.

Music? Sure. There's some good albums and we all know Soken makes and recognizes bangers, alongside what other musicians compose for the game - there's an emote in a couple of those collections.

Secondly, is reintroducing past-event Emotes in the store. Like, I get it - some emotes are ridiculously popular such as Playing Dead like Ganondorf Gerudoman in Ul'dah. Why are they on the store again? Oh wait. To make more $$$. Stuff like the glowsticks and the ranger poses are pretty popular among the playerbase - yet when they were introduced, they were attached to Little Ladies' Day and the Moonfire Faire. Like sure, you can buy it off season, or it'd be better for people to just wait around for the event to come back and get it then - but no. They'd rather see them get their money up, not turn their egg sunny-side up.

Because right now? That egg is BOILED. That's right. You thought you'd have the Eat Egg Emote somewhere back during Hatchingtide this year - but no. It didn't show up. Instead, we got a Goobbue with flowers on it that luckily doesn't have any allergies. If Emotes aren't enough, there are various other things we can point at in regards to equipment and clothing on the Store, but I'm not going to rant about that in this post. I just want to make it clear that the monetization is hurting this aspect of the game. If we want to get REALLY technical, here's the amount of emotes that are locked to the Online Store, as of March 25th, 2025 for learnable emotes(excluding JP Only):

63/160(39.3%!)

Even then, you have about 6 emotes that were tied to Meister Figures. I just want emotes to be more tied to stuff in the game that'll actually give you something - not just throwing money for an animation since we already pay the $15/mo cost of a sub.

Updates and Threads

10/18/24

New Mogstore Supply Kit Discussion - Seems like we're moving in the right direction(in a week oddly enough), but I think this bundle is more an attempt at trying to get us to buy into a bundle while ignoring individual emotes they could easily run account-wide like the one they've got in the bundle. If you want it? Buy it.

11/13/24

Well, we got *four* new Emotes. Time to update the %. Needs more In-game Emotes still that are earnable through quests, though.

1/21/25

New Emote dropped, but that's it. Just one that is a drop in the bucket.

1/28/25

New Emote coming with Valentione's Event - Limited Time, and basically gonna get shoved into the cash shop a year after. Woo.

2/10/25

We got the Instax Photography emote on the way - and it's FREE. No strings attached, no purchases. We need more of this to drive this percentage down.

3/21/25

New /dazed emote on the way in 7.2. Also getting added loops for /read and /tomestone on patch day, but they're not being added into the % because they're still tied to one emote. Also realized I made a mathematical error, so I did a recount and fixed it to what it is supposed to be to reflect after patch drops.

Edited due to mistake.

[CVXIV]

tldr it's a fried egg
not that deep
get better bait it's genuinely boring

[HyperiusUltima]

tldr it's a fried egg
not that deep
get better bait it's genuinely boring

To you it probably is, but it's getting to a point where new players are going to find having to dig into their wallets for some better quality emotes if they aren't already fine with what they have to express themselves. If they want it, they'll have to work for it as always - but more often than not, if they hate doing it they quit mid-way before they get to the reward.

[CVXIV]

To you it probably is, but it's getting to a point where new players are going to find having to dig into their wallets for some better quality emotes if they aren't already fine with what they have to express themselves. If they want it, they'll have to work for it as always - but more often than not, if they hate doing it they quit mid-way before they get to the reward.

I'd be surprised if people were really clamouring for an emote that lets them fry an egg, but I do understand the point

A lot of the stuff in the cash shop is overpriced
tbh the main complaint I have with the cash shop is that they insist on making most things there usable on a single character only rather than it being account wide

That and the bizarre decision to make certain items unable to be purchased as gifts when they could just check if the person you are buying a gift for already has the item, especially if they made all the items account wide

[HyperiusUltima]

I'd be surprised if people were really clamouring for an emote that lets them fry an egg, but I do understand the point

A lot of the stuff in the cash shop is overpriced
tbh the main complaint I have with the cash shop is that they insist on making most things there usable on a single character only rather than it being account wide

That and the bizarre decision to make certain items unable to be purchased as gifts when they could just check if the person you are buying a gift for already has the item, especially if they made all the items account wide

They did away with gifts I think to combat RMT.

You can read it here.

I do agree with the idea that stuff purchased on the store should be account-wide. That would make it FAR, FAR more feasible than simply just doing it once per character. It'd also add value if you ever had the thought to create another character - especially for the roleplayers out there.

[Mawlzy]

To you it probably is, but it's getting to a point where new players are going to find having to dig into their wallets for some better quality emotes if they aren't already fine with what they have to express themselves. If they want it, they'll have to work for it as always - but more often than not, if they hate doing it they quit mid-way before they get to the reward.

Serious question.

Can you provide a scenario in which being able to fry an egg is integral to one's character being able to fully express themselves? Particularly given that for the entire history of the game, nobody has been able to?

To put it another way, I don't think new players are having their game experience curtailed because a digital egg costs seven bucks. What they may benefit from is the revenue produced by whales buying an overpriced breakfast staple.

[PercibelTheren]

Serious question.

Can you provide a scenario in which being able to fry an egg is integral to one's character being able to fully express themselves? Particularly given that for the entire history of the game, nobody has been able to?

To put it another way, I don't think new players are having their game experience curtailed because a digital egg costs seven bucks. What they may benefit from is the revenue produced by whales buying an overpriced breakfast staple.

The fact that the defenders of this focus on one specific emote and keep pointing out how silly it is is quite telling, to be honest. It's annoying how much effort they clearly put into Mog Station content and not much else. They could have made the animations in DT cutscenes better, for example. Instead, they're just NPCs doing basic emotes and the resources to go a stupid fried egg emote that goes on the Mog Station.

[Mawlzy]

The fact that the defenders of this focus on one specific emote and keep pointing out how silly it is is quite telling, to be honest. It's annoying how much effort they clearly put into Mog Station content and not much else. They could have made the animations in DT cutscenes better, for example. Instead, they're just NPCs doing basic emotes and the resources to go a stupid fried egg emote that goes on the Mog Station.

I'm not defending anything. I just lack the business expertise to assess the revenue implications of resources applied to Mog Station products.

[Angeldust]

Serious question.

Can you provide a scenario in which being able to fry an egg is integral to one's character being able to fully express themselves? Particularly given that for the entire history of the game, nobody has been able to?

To put it another way, I don't think new players are having their game experience curtailed because a digital egg costs seven bucks. What they may benefit from is the revenue produced by whales buying an overpriced breakfast staple.

Lets see Mount of alexander raid boss: granted to just buying

Mount of shadowwolf from shadowbringers r aids: granted from just buying...

Multiple outfits that could realisticly be earned from multiple dungeons, questlines and connections in game


and multiple emotes inlucindg this one that could be rewards for crafters .... This does highly disencourage people to give a damn about in game both new and old, because why would i care when in game the rewards are meha to trash and most we get is a new glowy glowy in comparasion.



I think people like you know its screwed up many things emotes, some of the mounts and some of the outfits in mogstation do effect in game play through and the amount we should care about in game content goes down hill each time they add something to mogstation that SHOULD BE EARNABLE IN GAME. Idc about the school girl outfit or stupid things like that being on the mogstation, are things like princess dress thats fine but things like the emote or the scion outfits, the knight outfits from heavensward, gaia outfit etc these are things should be earned in game, same with this emote and many of the mounts on mogstation.


There is a level where its okay, like a stupid thing like a snickers bar or something lame with real world reletaionships to it is fine on mogstation, things that realistcly can be earned in game it does harm the playerbase because it makes us care less about the game, and content in the game why would i care to enter a raid on any level if they are just going to add a mount from it in mogstation in 2 months lol..



I mean what mogstation should be is just stupid things like keyblades, blitzballs maybe random weapon and outfit glamors from dragon quest and other connections to other se games, maybe throw in a final fantasy 7 weapon collection, I'm fine with mogstation existing and being used it being here isn't the proplem its how they are using it.

With these things that should be IN GAME EARNABLE, and not with things they could random collap with the mogstation such as hello kitty, kingdom hearts (with their assests non of disneys) like organization 13 weapons, maybe historical final fantasy outfits from past games, maybe random furinture from older ffs, and connections to other se titles thats all fine...

However mogstation has started to do it more and more throw in things that should be earnable in game to sell which does harm the playerbase and the amount of care we have. Sure we can pretend its just silly, and doesnt really matter and to a point thats right however we are way past that point

[PassinLay]

Serious question.

Can you provide a scenario in which being able to fry an egg is integral to one's character being able to fully express themselves? Particularly given that for the entire history of the game, nobody has been able to?

To put it another way, I don't think new players are having their game experience curtailed because a digital egg costs seven bucks. What they may benefit from is the revenue produced by whales buying an overpriced breakfast staple.

Perhaps if the in game glams from content and from buying in game didnt look absolutely terrible that would be fine, but basically 90% of in game gear (minus some of the level 1 stuff) looks absolutely atrocious, while glams that look decent or good are locked behind the mog station

Also emotes should come from the game, not from the mog station, some very rare ones could come from the mog station sure, but this isnt some very rare ones, it's a big majority of them if not almost all of them.

Stop defending the indefensible.

Wouldn't mind more cool emotes being available in-game, seeing as I collect them, but this:



I find it a little hard to care about, if you don't want to do most of the content you should expect to get fewer rewards no?

Ridiculous argument when there is nothing to get even if you do content since basically everything is on the mog station.