I'm not saying to give every minor character a billion dialogue options, but at least give some of them a small story, the possibility of turning them into an actual small character, or maybe even a COUPLE dialogue options.
An example: I was walking through a field outside of whiterun and a lady in a roughspun tunic walks up to me. Her name is "escaped prisoner" or something of the sort. She tells me she was kidnapped by bandits in some fort. "Whats this?" I think "Could this person turn into a character?" "Could this be an interesting quest?" I direct her to the nearest town. Where would this go?
Nowhere
"Here, kill the bandits, I'll mark the fort on your map"
-.-
[SPOILER; not sure how to hide it]
Same thing with the dark brotherhood recruits. Great, I beat the questline, I get this awesome lair, which is populated by a bunch of nameless initiates, babette, and Nazir. Nazir keeps telling me how the dark brotherhood is on the rise,but I don't see it. All I see is a bunch of nameless people wandering around. The old brotherhood felt much more populated than this new one. Each character had a small story and thier own unique personality. That is what I ask of minor characters.