Well, that we did as a choice for the sake of logic and blank slates. Way back when Atom was a sci-fi RPG in Space and you played not as a nameless character you build through a menu, but as Alexander who is now a mere follower, every dialogue started with all sorts of unique lines. Because Alexander had a personality and an attitude. But the blank character of Atom has YOUR personality and attitude, you're roleplaying as him. That's why all the initial questions are neutral. Imagine going up to an NPC and suddenly in place of "Tell me some rumors" you see "Do you wanna know how I got these scars?"... I'd be like HEY!!! Why is he asking this question only to this one NPC and not the rest of them? Why is my player character talking like the Joker? Is it a DC game? Is this reality? I'm larping a character who doesn't have scars! I'm larping a quiet guy who doesn't like to talk about his past! Why are you breaking my character, game?!
That's why we go with a formula "4 basic questions + one special question derived from the looks or actions of the NPC" or just "4 basic questions". It makes you start off neutral, and in most situations you can then pick a reaction that suits the character you're picturing in your head. I think it was a valid choice when playing a blank slate.
While I understand what you mean, I was criticizing something else. Especifically, the inability to go into a conversation with NPCs. For instance, you can ask "What do you do here?", but rarely can you follow that question up with other questions (or statements). From what I've played, there's usually a default "answer" which is basically "change the topic", i.e.
- "Who are you?"
- "I'm Anton, I tend the crops here."
- "Must be boring. Let me ask you something else."
As opposed to, say:
- "Who are you?" (to a man tending crops)
- "I'm Anton, I tend the crops here."
- Do you ever get bored of it?
- Have you been doing it for long?
- Figures.
- From the looks of you, that appears to be the best your sorry existence will ever amount to.
And each option could lead to different possibilities. The obvious one is the last one, probably leading to a fight... or not, because Anton has such a low self steem you can keep bullying him or try and convince him to improve. Who knows. But basically most NPCs works as dispensers of info, little interaction, and in most cases I have found all info could be condensed in a single "tell me everything". Sometimes it's best for NPCs to be generic like Fallout's, saying nothing but a single bark.
This is of course a lot of work not even the alleged pros of cRPGs do (only in Planescape: Torment did it ever feel like people were truly human beings that you could talk to and they would talk to you back), it's not my intention to make it seem like the game is bad or worse because of this. It's just an observation: when interactions become so formulaic (click each of the four options, then trade or walk away) you tend to get detached from NPCs and thus they stop being important to the player.