True, and tbh never really liked them, not even when were the devs putting them in for their own fun.

The problem is the quantity, 1/2 of the population of this world is made of backers' npcs, I get it that if the game happened is thanks to backers, and I would never ask for this kind of content not to be included, but having the option to leave it out of my gameplay? Oh god yes.

Let's put it like this, you start watching a movie, and after 10 minutes the credits start rolling, on the side of the screen, maybe a very small part of it, but the full credits...

What can I say, I really enjoy reading those stories - sure, some are better than others, but so far I've red all that I have found and, for the most part, I never felt like they're immersion breaking.

It's no where near that many!
There's just a lot of them at the start, compared to the normal ones.

I figured those soul story dudes had something to do with the backers, but assumed the stories had been written by people at Obsidian.

On the one hand I found those stories refreshing - and like Jennifer, I though it was a neat way to figure out my character had these powers now.

On the other hand, they're hell of repetetive, occasionally present you with situations that are a little silly (in a game like this, if you find out somebody's a serial killer, you should be able to at least try to do something about it) and the names, at least, are occasionally lore breaking.

I kind of accepted the tombstones as a necessity of Kickstarter funding, so, I just ignored it. But... yeah, they're kind of annoying.

I dunno, I think it feels different because the tone is different. Fallout 2 had a weird, more than half-humorous, very late 90s referential irony thing going. It was very much a part of the mood. Finding TARDIS or the Unwashed Villagers (a reference to a Fallout fan community) there didn't seem that out of context. I can't really put my finger on it, but it didn't feel mood-breaking the way it would have in, say, BG II.

Still, a lot of Fallout fans didn't like it (Fallout had a bit of that too, but more subdued and more in keeping with that game's darker, bleaker perspective), which I suspect is the reason "Weird Wasteland" is an optional perk in New Vegas.

Well yes. I sometimes post in my sleep it seems.

IMO what BioWare did in DA:O was way worse than this. That guy was right there in your bloody camp, basically going "hi, I have a great quest for you but first, please hand over your Credit Card information" it was ridiculous. The tomb stones in PoE are very easily ignored and the game actually warns you in one of the loading screen tips that they can potentially be immersion breaking. After taking a look, out of curiosity, at the first couple I came across I haven't read a single one of them. Still think it's cool for those backers that they're represented though. Good for them!

The NPC's are a bit more obvious in their presence, but I have actually enjoyed most of their stories and haven't found a single one that was immersion breaking... And I've read a LOT. I'm sorry it bothers you as much as it does but it's not that hard to just ignore them, is it? Just don't click on them. Either way, this game wouldn't exist if it weren't for the Kickstarter backers, that's the simple truth, and I see the tombstones and NPC's as reminders of that. Which is not even in the same realm as putting a DLC-pawning merchant in the player's camp in a AAA title.

What I can't understand, is if you are such a fan that you will drop a grand on it, why would you want to deface it with your ludicrous Boaty McBoatface npc wearing purple chain mail over a lime green leotard?

Most of them stood out like dogs balls. Surely a true fan would want them out. Luckily the IE mod let's you change the names to a generic race description.

If you look at the kickstarter, the $1000 backers were only a small percentage of total raised.

But with that sort of extortionate amount, they would be offended if they politely asked them to reconsider.

It got away on them a bit. Limited to 10 for the sequel, which is about right. Maybe they can shove them all in one house and be done with it.