I ask this question because for the next TES game I would actually like to see the game fit to scale. Giant cities with hundreds and hundreds of NPCs walking around, sort of like the Assassin's Creed games that actually feel like you're in a huge city.

I'm tired of cities that are supposed to be big and they have like 12 buildings and 30 NPCs. Takes me completely out of the experience.

Do we really need to interact with EVERY NPC? Can't there be like 15 unique NPCs in the city and then just have the rest of them walking around, doing jobs, etc?

This has come up before. Personally, I do not want generic NPCs and I do not want generic "dummy" houses that we cannot enter, either. I can play a Bioware game if I want that. One of the defining features of an Elder Scrolls game, in my opinion, is it hand-crafted world and unique NPCs who all lead lives of their own and have places to stay. I do not want to have to trade quantity for quality. If given a choice, I will always choose quality.