Cities feel too organised

[Belthazor]

If having random people with no personality stand around and say "Have you seen mudcrabs? disgusting creatures" and have no personality beyond that is them being "alive" I want to know what sort of dead world you live on. Also all the people in the cities we have now have a purpose, and they have more then 10 people, sans Winterhold, unless you count the College.

I disagree about getting more info out of them, a handful of characters, like Dagoth-Ur, and vivec gave you more info yes, but the VAST majority of NPCs gave you nothing beyond the same "rumor" dialog. I have gotten more useful information out of skyrim's NPcs then I ever did out of the majority of Morrowind's npcs.

All of them have a purpose? Other than to fill the city? Alright, let's take Whiterun as an example. What purpose do Sigurd, the cleaning ladies in Dragonsreach, all the non-quest-related kids, Saffir, Gwendolyn, Wilmuth, Hrongar, Heimskr, Nazeem, Olfina Grey-Mane and Lillith Maiden-Loom serve? That's just a short list, I could list up a few more Whiterun people that are not related to any quests, aren't merchants, followers, hirelings or spouses.

And I never said they all should have actual dialog. But if it was text-based, it would be a lot easier to make it unique. Don't make the mistake of looking at Morrowind or Oblivion and think I want it in the exact same way. Years have passed since then and those systems could be improved upon. Like I mentioned in a previous comment, you don't even have to be able to talk to them or understand what they're saying. Again, look at Assassins Creed. Lots of people in the city, talking with each other, yet you don't understand a word. Those cities feel so much more alive and realistic than any city in any TES game.

[Bomb_Voyage]

I would certainly be in favor of, for example, adding more NPCs and more buildings/structures to one or two major cities as long as it was reasonable to do without sacrificing performance for low-end PCs and consoles.

However, like I said, I'll take quality over quantity any day. One NPC that adds content such as a quest or unique dialogue is worth a dozen that just repeat the same line over and over. I'm sure they could have probably squeezed in some more buildings/NPCs in some of the Skyrim's city cells/divided the city cells up, and major cities such as Whiterun/Windhelm could certainly have benefited from being made bigger/more bustling... but I highly doubt the Xbox could handle 30 more houses and as many more NPCs crammed into Whiterun without separating the cells.

Functionality first, window dressing later. Seeing as how there are mods to add large-scale battles to Skyrim, I'm sure there will be/are mods to expand the city size as well for players with better PCs. Having NPCs who have no lines and buildings in large-sized towns that are just there for decoration should be nice extras that come after everything else.

As previous posters have pointed out, just because Assassin's Creed does it, doesn't mean Skyrim just can at the wave of a hand.... totally different engines.