An episode in stupidity, and ignorance in reporting rears it's ugly head

The New York Post reported Saturday on the arrest of one Humza Bajwa on charges of second-degree robbery and larceny for pulling a fake gun in an attempt to steal 4.7 billion in RuneScape gold currency. That's fake currency people. FAKE.

Bajwa, the gamer version of a crack addict.

But that's the counter-reality to our living reality, and dismissing it out of hand would only serve to further the perception outside of gaming culture that "geeks" don't operate on the same plane of existence as the rest of society. But beyond attempted robbery (which really should be the charges here, but I suspect, since the law is slow to keep up with modern issues and technology, that he's been charged with assault) there's more going on under the surface here.


The whole incident comes across as like a bad spy novel.


For most online MMO's, the buying and selling of the in-game currency for real world money is frowned upon if not outright banned, but that's the primary motivation behind this incident, Bajwa was going to buy 4.7 billion gold from one Jonathan Dokler with his real world $3,300. Pretty standard fare right? Most transactions of this nature would occur within the online sphere via Paypal or some other money transferring system. But here's where it start to go bad tv drama episode:

Instead of transferring the money online, Bajwa allegedly wanted a face-to-face meeting — and Dokler sent his Fordham pal David Emani to collect the cash

Ok, so we've added an agent of the "dealer" and a clandestine meeting in a college library in New York. Let's take a step back for a moment, and look at this situation. I don't know about you, but I've got red flags going up everywhere already. Dude wants to buy your gold (a bannable offense). Flag One. And doesn't want to transfer the funds online but instead asks for a face-to-face. Flag Two.

Already I'm thinking this is a pass situation. But it gets better:

Emani told The Post that he met Bajwa in the school library on July 11 — and had a feeling something was wrong.

“He was transferring money from one envelope to another envelope, and I got a glimpse of it and it looked fake,” Emani said. “I was on the phone with John, and I said, ‘Don’t do it. It looks fake.'"


Toss in a sudden "I have to go" excuse, most likely from the "oh shit they're on to me" reaction on Bajwa's part, and you've got Flag Three.

No, seriously, just drop it.

But Dokler bravely pushes on, and arranges a meet the following night between his agent and Bajwa, undoubtedly hearing the sound of over $3k rustling on his bed while he waves his arms in it in his head. Instead his buddy gets a fake gun pulled on him, which he takes for the real deal.

Well said there Red

He gets a BB pulled on him, which, I dunno about you, but I think it would be pretty obvious from the size of the hole in the barrel that it wasn't a real gun. I mean, it could put your eye out or something...

goddammit kid

But there's more to this story, beyond the idiocy exhibited by all parties involved and the clear psychological issues with Bajwa, there's the mainstream media's perception of gamers and gaming. Right off the bat they're using the dismissive words like "magic" and "geek" to describe the in-game currency and the players, respectively.

Really? Are gamers still relegated to that basement-dweller image? Where everything they do is seen as childish and immature? Apparently so, at least in the eyes of the NY Post wrtiters.

Of further concern is the damage to the image of mature gamers that, like me, frown upon this sort of behavior not just because of it's social relevance but it's relevance to our hobby. Bajwa was called an addict several times during the post, but is that really accurate? I don't know personally, but it warrants attention from the medical community as well as the gaming community. How much is too much? And where do we draw the line between what is an acceptable behavior in an attempt to achieve gaming goals (particularly with MMO's) and what isn't.

Dokler says he's only selling the gold to finance his college career, but that's clearly part of the problem. Personally I think he needs to be brought up on charges as well as Bajwa, but unfortunately the legal system has not caught up with the current situation with online games and their currency.

And as long as we have people outside of the community continuing to spread the stereotypes of those who enjoy the hobby, I don't think it ever will.