First off, I'm just back from my holiday to the Highlands so I've had plenty of time to think on this.

Now, In Oblivion, and presumably Morrowind as well, pretty much everbody in the whole game (except town Guards) had names and Dialogue, it may seem silly but I liked the fact that you could talk to everyone, even if some of the dialogue was reused.

In Fallout 3 and New Vegas however, most of the NPCs in the game world were just sort of... pointless, they may as well have been moving pieces of terrain. Walking into Megaton for the first time and meeting Lucas Simms, I thought to myself, "At last, I am in a town with lots of people and therefore lots of dialogue and quests" only to discover that 'Megaton Settler' number 1 - 50 is only capable of saying maybe 3 or 4 lines of dialogue.

I hope this isn't the case in Skyrim. Anyone with me?

To each their own, but I have to disagree. I loved the Assassin's Creed cities, they were filled with unnamed, non-interactive pedestrians, but the cities felt bustling and alive. Oblivions cities felt really dead and somewhat depressing.

Dialogue that said the same thing as many, many other NPCs? Those filler NPCs in Oblivion had names, but they were still filler NPCs with the only dialogue option "rumor". That experience happened to everyone who played Oblivion too you know. A lot of the NPCs were pointless in Oblivion.

True, but the rumors were randomly generated. Better than hearing "Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter" over and over again.