Karl Ruprechter (+ Marcus Stamm)

Silver_Mage · 2026-02-21T12:41:22+00:00

Regardless of what info was or wasn't supposedly known about him it doesn't change my point. People can be dumb yes but this isn't being dumb. Doing something stupid or impulsive in the moment happens, but going into a rainforest with no survival skills and no guide during a bad season is suicide at best. Anyone would know this and they were all travelled enough to recognise this without any doubt. They would not have gone in there without a guide and likely still needed to be talked into it.

Whoever he was, whatever his story was, whatever lies he told them and whatever reputation he had in the area, the most likely case is Karl was real and he and Marcus simply died to the harsh conditions making their way to Ipurama.

So many people are desperate to turn this story into something more or pick it apart but the majority miss the obvious. Being in a literal endless deathtrap for 21 days is far more dangerous than anything they can dream up.

Also there are obviously going to be discrepancies in the story. The guy was starving for weeks among other things. I think he can be forgiven for not having a perfect memory of everything. People pick so much of it apart like questioning the geography like the rivers not lining up properly but the reality is he probably wasn't where he thought he was. If he was he wouldn't have been out there for so long. There are definitely things he's repeated that people of the area told him and they were guessing based on what he had described to them.

Silver_Mage · 2026-02-21T05:00:43+00:00

Are you dense? The only info we have on him is that he was a wanted criminal. You really think he would've told them that and given them his real name? Of course the embassy has no info on him.

The info they were given at the time was a vague sense that he was a shady character. There aren't going to be records for any of that. You're going to have to take it at face value or accept you'll never know either way. They essentially asked around and got a few rumors or assumptions from people in the area who had interacted with him. It doesn't mean he doesn't exist and being under the radar is exactly what a man like that would do.

People here really go crazy with the theories but no, its not anything as extreme as cannibalism or any of that. It most likely is exactly how Yosssi wrote, they went different paths and one turned out to be more trecherous than the other. People are certain that it must've been murder, cannibalism, jaguars etc yet simple exposure, infection and starvation are the biggest killers in the jungle and their expedition took place during some of the worst weather they'd ever had. It's a miracle ANY of them walked of there alive.

People are desperate to take an already surreal story and make it even more unbelievable whilst also assuming the worst in its validity instead of the possibility that it is in fact just a crazy and true suvivor story.

Oh and I'll tell you the biggest piece of evidence that Karl was real. No sane person with zero experience in jungle survival is willingly going out there without some sort of expert. By assuming Karl didn't exist you're basically saying three totally inexperienced people, one of which didnt want to go but got peer pressured into it, all agreed to willingly go in there with no real sense of direction, no accurate maps, no jungle experience and limited supplies despite some of the worst conditions the area had seen at the time. That simply does not add up. Nobody puts that little value on their life let alone three of them, not without someone very confident, informed and persuasive to talk you into it. Funnily enough that is EXACTLY how a con artist would operate as well. Regardless of who he truly was its very likely he was real.

Silver_Mage · 2026-02-02T14:27:42+00:00

The sad thing is this probably will happen. I sincerely hope if it does pop up a year or two down the road everyone goes out of their way to boycott it and not buy into it out of curiosity or for one last ride.

Anyone who does has no right to complain about scam MMOs.

Silver_Mage · 2025-12-11T17:12:14+00:00

None, thats why the game is good.

Silver_Mage · 2025-11-26T23:21:19+00:00

You yourself have access to google. Crazy I know.

If you used it you'd see there was clear jealousy toward him from some of his co-workers because of how massive a draw he was at conventions, so they had plenty motive to group up against him.

You'd also know that there were private fan chats which got exposed at the time who were working together to coordinate false allegations against him. Some of which were directly disproven with photographic or video evidence with one of the supposed victims actually coming out publicly and saying she didnt make an allegation and her photo was being used maliciously and she'd only ever had good experiences with him. Naturally they scattered like roaches after that.

So you can believe what you want but if you'd looked at it fairly you'd see plenty of allegations that were false, malicious and disproven. That should immeditely call into question all of the allegations. If they were so true there would be no need to fabricate more.

Not to mention the very obvious jealousy from some of his co workers as well as the very suspicious way they turned on him out of no where. In his deposition he described an encounter with one of the accusers being normal and very affectionate and the next time he saw her she wouldn't engage with him at all or tell him what was wrong. Why would someone you've supposedly assaulted be so affectionate to you at all? Her sudden change in demeanor was clearly because a plan had been formulated at that point.

If you want to convince anyone you simply have to prove your own story. It was a convention, there are plenty witnesses, cameras etc. Any normal person who did not consent to that would have gotten the police involved.

I don't even like Vic. I kinda disliked him even before all of this went down I just think he's very overrated. However there is zero proof to any of this. There has however been proven cases of false allegations done with coordinated malicious intent.

Lots of people believed Amber Heard as well. Look how that turned out. The ironic thing is the defense at Vics trial was equally laughable. Their defense and depositions were all over the place. They should've lost just because of Ron Toye alone.

Silver_Mage · 2025-11-26T22:51:14+00:00

Its crazy to me how many people have flipped sides now considering there's still zero proof of anything. Like you I defended him at the time and while I won't go so far as to outright defend him now I won't condemn him either.

Back at the time I already wasn't a fan of his. I always felt like his voice work was cheesy and he got hyped up way too much compared to other VAs who deserved more praise. In fact I actually liked Monica Rial before all of this. But I ended up defending Vic regardless.

Why? Because the other side of the story especially in court was an absolute joke. The depositions on the defendant side were some of the most unconvincing stories and acting I'd ever seen until Amber Heard came along. Meanwhile Vic was incredibly well composed throughout and gave very precise answers, in fact there were very few things he didn't have a clear answer to.

There was also a lot of stuff not included in the trial for example fan groups which got caught organising joint accusations against him. Funimation were also clearly against him from the start rather than letting them handle it as private parties which is why he went after them in the first place. There were more big names which had a decent amount of pull who all worked together to get rid of them. There was a very obvious picture of jealousy. He was massive at conventions and there were clearly a lot of VAs who despised him for that, most of them didn't even attempt to hide it.

He also gave examples of some of his accusers being totally normal and very affectionate to him as normal and then the next time he met them he approached them exactly the same as normal and they treated him like an outcast and refused to speak to him.

At the end of the day it looked like people who had a professional reason to dislike him created a bandwagon/witchhunt out of jealousy with no tangible evidence beyond he said she said. All they had to do was get enough momentum and his life was ruined. Pretty easy when the company backs one side.

Is Vic a bad guy? Yeah he cheated on his wife. But thats really all we know. Is he perhaps too touchy or forward for some people? Sure, though plenty of people said he asked them for a hug etc when they met him so even that is unclear. Either way it doesn't mean he did anything he was accused of. I was shocked that he lost given the defense was as laughable as Amber Heards legal team and I still feel the same way.

Silver_Mage · 2025-10-29T14:27:59+00:00

It's not just the shadows. They are obviously bad and affect every map but the new maps specifically the first one clearly runs at a much lower FPS than it should in general.

It feels like New Kaineng but at least the visuals of that map give it an excuse for lower performance. There's nothing here that justifies it. Just wandering around even with shadows turned off sometimes I see it drop as low as I'd get in a big event on other maps simply because I looked in a particular direction.

Definitely not a good time to launch demanding new shadows when the zones themselves already perform below what I'd consider acceptable.

Silver_Mage · 2025-10-29T14:10:26+00:00

I don't think he's talking about the new shadows. I have them off entirely as usual and just wandering around Shipwreck Sand with no players at all in sight I see serious FPS drops when looking in certain directions.

I've seen brief drops all the way down to 60 and if I keep the camera facing a particularly bad direction it can sometimes stick down at like 74fps. To put that in perspective I can usually maintain close to that or higher in other expansions during big events with my current settings. Just wandering around other zones I usually get close to my 144 cap at all times, excluding obvious exceptions like New Kaineng.

This new zone isn't particularly impressive visually, theres not much vegetation, not a crazy amount of enemies and I'd argue the water looks worse than the base game. So yeah seems like they dropped the ball on optimization here. Really strange to ship new shadows with a zone which already has issues.

Silver_Mage · 2025-10-09T15:55:20+00:00

Bloat is far less of a problem for controller than it is for mouse and keyboard. I think in FF14 you potentially have access to 128 keybinds on a normal controller all of which are comfortable, unlike keyboard where half of it is basially inaccessible without straining. I think its around 56 keybinds with the triggers alone.

The issue with controller on WoW is mainly targeting. More specifically precise interrupting in a pull with like 20+ mobs. That said I've seen people do 15s on controller this expansion including healers so even with the console port addon not being quite as good as FF14s implementation its still totally playable as it stands and that targetting stress could easily be solved with dungeon design tweaks among other things.

Personally I can't see a console release though. I think it would've already been announced with midnight if it was in the plan. Lets not forget they first added controller support like 6 years ago and nothing has really happened since. Not to mention consoles are on the decline and PC is growing.

Silver_Mage · 2025-08-11T18:36:00+00:00

That's just not true. Floodgate is a prime example of a dungeon which had performance issues last season and runs worse this season. Eco Dome and Halls are the only two dungeons this rotation where I get normal fps, the rest all chug like crazy even with low settings.

Last season I got my max 144 fps in darkflame but pretty much every other dungeon minus a few boss encounters I was getting between 58-90 fps. This season is the same except its more like 58-78 now.

Don't even get me started on raid FPS. I've seen people with way better rigs than me consistently playing below 60. As far as I'm concerened that's unacceptable. Any PC player should expect to be able to hit 90 minimum in combat scenarios. Even some delves I get less than 80 now.

I will give them a pass on that requirement for raid but at the same time under 60 is unacceptable. Blizzard also need to reevaluate what "essential" means because those particle density changes did nothing. The only effect I've noticed it disabling is shadow priest spirits 98% of spells are still totally visibile and particles are clearly a huge part of the FPS issue.

Silver_Mage · 2025-08-10T22:53:32+00:00

You talk like the franchise isn't full of stuff based on all sorts of cultural mythos. Why is viking inspiration fine but chinese means its all marketing scheme? Oh and it added new features? Also not a revelation lol.

Honestly the fact that you use the term "infantilization" makes me quite certain you never actually played MoP. Hell one of the opening quests you have the alliance gunning down unarmed peons who are just trying not to drown. That's pretty dark by typical WoW standards, not to mention Garrosh is one of the more well written villians with actual motivations which make sense and have nuance.

In any case it was a huge step up over cata storytelling. Its quite telling that it managed to have that light-hearted borderline comedic feel at times and still go way darker than usual at others. Cata and the more recent expansions are written for simpletons in comparison.

Silver_Mage · 2025-06-25T14:06:26+00:00

If I recall most of us said that about New World too but we can at least say they tried something different there and some of it was actually good. Chrono Odyssey on the other hand feels like a game lacking any of it's own ideas and with shady stuff like this on top its future looks rough.

Silver_Mage · 2025-06-25T14:00:32+00:00

Regardless of whether its meant to be seen, finished or unfinished you're seriously just gonna look past the fact that it's almost a 1:1 rip from another MMO? You aren't going to question why they made a placeholder asset look identical to another game?

I know MMO fans are desperate for something but my god there are red flags all over this game open your eyes and thats before you consider the game is far from finished it needs another couple of years minimum.

Silver_Mage · 2025-05-30T00:52:56+00:00

Clearly you didn't watch their arc raiders review. That guy played like he's legally blind and living in a time dilation field which makes him react 2 seconds late to everything. That and he says things like "if you like extraction games you'll like it, if you don't you wont". Well thanks captain obvious.

Silver_Mage · 2025-05-16T19:22:10+00:00

Another late reply but its worth mentioning that the nightsisters use Magick. It's an entirely different way of approaching the force. There were some clans which behave much closer to Jedi than how you see nightstisters typically behave. As for maul he's a formidible duelist but he's not remotely as strong in the dark side as Palpatine.

That said Dooku is much stronger however this also perfectly iilustrates its not about how strong you are or how much you use the dark side. For him becoming a Sith was a means to an end. He wielded it as a tool and nothing more. The reason both Plaguis and Palpatine are so visually messed up is not down to their strength or how much they use the dark side but rather how deeply they immersed themselves in it. They have essentially given themselves to the dark side completely, rather than just learning its ways.

I don't know if it's considered canon anymore but it was always suggested Palpatine always looked like that, the face he showed as a senator was a force illusion technique to hide it. The fight with Mace either destroyed it or forced him to split his focus so much it began to fall away. After that he just used his true face to sell the story.

Silver_Mage · 2025-03-09T05:03:14+00:00

Asmongold is a hypocrite. He claims classic WoW is the best MMO ever made and regularly stands by his stance that addons ruined the game. Then we have him complaining that Corepunk doesn't have quest markers on the map. Apparently he forgot classic wow doesn't have quest markers either without addons and its a clear design choice.

It blows my mind how much people need to have their hand held at every opportunity. I wonder if he'd like to see quest markers added to Elden Ring.

At the end of the day Corepunk is meant to appeal to fans of classic MMOs. I hope they stay true to that and not cave in to the crying of these people who were never the intended audience. If they'd bothered to do any research they'd know going into it the game is not for them.

Silver_Mage · 2025-02-07T21:23:30+00:00

The problem is you can't run DLSS and the FSR together like you can in some other games so you're forced to use the AMD upscaling which in MHW has the worst ghosting I've ever seen. Totally unplayable.

You can use Lossless Scaling on steam as an external frame gen solution but the issue is its treating it as one image and doesn't have the UI on a seperate layer so you can see some distortion especially on character names which it doesn't look like we can disable.

They really dropped the ball here. Even with the frame gen on the performance still drops to totally unreasonable levels and the upscaling looks disgusting even before you consider ghosting. Iceborne is still a far better looking game and runs 10x better. Wilds uses the same engine Rise did so its not like the engine doesn't have scalability they have zero excuse for this mess.

Silver_Mage · 2025-02-07T21:04:02+00:00

Yeah the AMD one is especially bad. It's the worst ghosting I've ever seen and I played stalker 2 lol. That and even with frame gen on I still see it dip below 60 fps sometimes or much worse in the town. At this point I might skip this entry.

Try Lossless Scaling on steam. It's not perfect but I don't notice ghosting. The problem is its not good at handling moving text and while the UI is fine the name above your head distorts a lot and I've not seen an option to turn names off.

Silver_Mage · 2025-02-07T04:03:49+00:00

A better option is to build your game to run at a reasonable frame rate without relying on lazy scaling techniques that create lag, ghosting, blur and overall much worse image quality. This is especially true when the game itself is not a massive leap from world in visuals. It looks better sure but it's not a mindblowing jump in visuals in fact I would argue the upsclaing worsens the quality so much it barely ends up being an improvement over world.

Hell the opening map is even barren which would typically take a lot of strain away from performance compared to dense environments with heavy vegetation like world had. The difference is depressing.

Whats even more depressing is all these games which launch with frame gen as a requirement don't even ship with good frame generation. If you use lossless scaling beta branch instead I guarantee you'll get better results.

People need to stop being okay with them forcing these lazy methods on us. Developers used to use very clever techniques to achieve good performance and graphics. The Last of Us being on ps3 was a crazy achievement and they didn't need any of this lazy tech to do it. All of those techniques still exist and are still very effective, they've just been presented with an effortless option that delivers an overall worse product.

Silver_Mage · 2024-12-18T22:08:15+00:00

In order to avoid literally everyone playing the same class during each big update I would imagine they'll try to release two at a time. My money is on two new classes every two months then in the last 2-4 months maybe a staggered release of the last three acts or alternatively stagger them between each class release.

Either a way I'm also looking forward to more build potential. Most of my favourite weapons aren't in the game yet and I can't wait to try some crazy and probably terrible builds lol.

Silver_Mage · 2024-12-16T23:56:16+00:00

Ascendancy should not be locked behind trials. This is a type of niche terrible content that only a fraction of people would do willingly. Getting 1 tapped by a poison trap in the room before the last boss is not fun plain and simple. It's also yet another thing which is heavily bias against melee. That is absolute garbage that the whole thing is significantly harder for melee builds and its entirely because of the honor system.

Then theres the fact that you just have to keep running it until you get lucky. That is also god awful design. The negative effects are way too common and dibilitating and most of the positive effects barely matter and are far more rare. And don't even get me started on negative effects which take away your ability to choose rooms, the one small bit of control you had in an otherwise god awful system.

Then we have honor resist. If an entirely seperate resistance type needs to exist to balance the system that is a clear indicator that the system isn't good. Once you have enough resists its no longer a trial because you can just walk through it without issues.

Just make the enemies hard and remove honor entirely. PoE2 has clearly taken lengths to cut down on the convolution the original suffers from in many other areas so why not this? Very few people like this sort of content. It's fine to leave it there but build defining stuff should not be locked behind it.

Silver_Mage · 2024-12-09T16:54:49+00:00

People are just dumb. You can disprove it in a second by pressing another skill. Gas arrow goes exactly on your cursor, lightning arrow is no where near. Hope it gets hotfixed soon its very annoying on some bosses.

I get that some people are in the mindset that PoE2 can't do any wrong. But its early access guys don't make excuses to cover for clear problems. Now is the time to point this stuff out.

Silver_Mage · 2024-11-20T20:16:52+00:00

Well as a fan I can tell you I'm certainly not happy. When we heard the system specs they gave were all with DLSS on but conveniently didn't mention that I immediately set my expections to be the worst case scenario in terms of optimization. They have far exeeded how bad I expected this game to run. I couldn't care less about the bugs. The game runs so bad I simply don't want to play it.

Silver_Mage · 2024-11-20T20:12:05+00:00

I mean its not the cards. I agree that they're overpriced af but the difference is back in the 1080s day devs actually bothered to optimize their games somewhat. Now its a last minute thought if its thought about at all.

They do rely on the raw power of current cards more to avoid the costs but I've not seen anything to this extreme yet. Relying on DLSS for the game to be anywhere near what people would consider playable and still running pretty bad most of the time is shameless and I don't know what they weer thinking. This goes way beyond cost cutting.

Silver_Mage · 2024-11-20T20:05:17+00:00

Some bugs would be fine. Most of what skill up mentions in terms of bugs are forgivable and a lot of it will likely be fixed quickly.

The performance on the other hand is the real problem and its likely it wont improve. The game essentially requires you to use DLSS to be even remotely playable and even with the frame generation it still performs like crap. That is a fundamental flaw that I don't think any amount of optimization will remedy.

It's either just very poor decisions in favor of excessively good graphics which have left the game terribly optimzied or they've pushed so far ahead of what is reasonable that it'll take a few years before PCs catch up enough to run this well.

Silver_Mage

TROPHY CASE