Genshin Impact, like many games of its ilk, has a highly dedicated fan base. It's no wonder that the game generated over US$2 billion (S$2.7 billion) in terms of global player spending in just its first year.

With a game this popular, it is no wonder that fans lap up never-seen-before, exclusive information about the game whenever it pops up.

Based on a Reddit post, a beta tester, named 晴Hare (Qing Hare) on the Chinese video sharing site Bilibili, landed in some trouble when he leaked game footage he's not supposed to.

He sent the footage to a friend, who then ended up spreading the footage to more people. Because Qing Hare didn't cover his unique identifier (UID), the footage is easily traced back to him.

As a result, he is fined 500,000 RMB (S$106,100), and his Genshin Impact account was banned.

The surprising part, however, is that he finds the loss of the account to be more painful than the fine, so much so that he simply wants the friend to compensate for the loss of the account.

Qing Hare is particularly loyal to a specific character in the game, Keqing, having devoted time and money into both building up the character and dolling her up.

This is perhaps why, among other reasons, it is easy to end up going off the deep end with games like these, and overspending on gacha and in-game currencies.

While gamers have always known that game accounts have an intangible value that's hard to quantify, the intensity of the attachment one feels towards them is still startling.

READ MORE: Razer and Genshin Impact bring us the crossover products we deserve

This article was first published in Geek Culture.