The Internet is riled up as it is want to do today, after a student allegedly used money they raised for their studies on Genshin Impact.

It starts the same way it always does in the capitalist dystopia that we call the year 2022- a young student posts on Twitter, saying that due to their current circumstances, they need to raise money to finish their studies.

“I am currently studying on my ninth semester, second last before I finally graduate. I must finance my study entirely by myself”, the first in series of tweets reads.

While that would normally get people motivated to throw some extra change their way to help a kid along, things escalated after another user pointed out that this student had a very lavishly stocked Genshin Impact account- something that said student had taken the liberty of showing off.

The photo shows multiple 5-star weapons, ranked up to level 90- something not easily accomplished without a huge financial investment on the player’s part.

Naturally, this led to accusations that aforementioned student had been using the crowdfunding money to finance their gacha habits.

Said student took to Twitter to clear their name, saying that the money spent on Genshin Impact was entirely out of their own pocket- none of the crowdfunding money was used to fund some kid’s gacha habit.

“I’ve never used my previous crowdfunding money for my luxury- it all went to fund my study fee”, they write.

Source: MyGameOn, via Gamer Santai.

A Tricky Situation (Editorial)

Honestly, this situation has been around longer than Genshin Impact or even gacha gaming. For years, conservative children have always been warned of things like donating to the poor, citing rhetoric like “they’re just going to spend it on [vice] anyways”.

There are genuinely arguments to be made on either side here- on one, if you believe this kid makes however many thousands it would take to pull all those weapons and is now has no money for studies, that’s a totally real thing that could happen. Is it responsible? Hell no. But the idea that only the hardest core of the poor should be allowed to ask for aid is kind of ridiculous in its own way.

On the other hand, it’s also perfectly fine to not want to donate to the kid after seeing that weapons list. Like many Twitter users have pointed out, that’s not just having a *single* 5-star character. You’d have to pull massively to get that many weapons, then pull them again just to rank them up. Gacha addiction is a serious problem, and if the kid is burning up their own income on a videogame to the point of having no room for their fees, some intervention would be needed before we learn how much worse it can get.

My point is, it’s very likely that the kid is telling the truth, and earmarked money does actually go to their studies- but this just highlights another reason to really watch yourself before you get hooked on gacha gaming.

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Genshin Impact

Publisher: miHoYo

Developer: miHoYo

Release Date: 2020-09-28

Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

Step into Teyvat, a vast world teeming with life and flowing with elemental energy. You and your sibling arrived here from another world. Separated by an unknown god, stripped of your powers, and cast into a deep slumber, you now awake to a world very different from when you first arrived.