I enjoy NPC interactions when their dialogue change over the course of a game. Events are mentioned, important figures are talked about, sometimes they might ask my character what's news. But beyond that I get that there is limited change in an NPCs discussion/interaction probably because there are more important matters in the game that required more attention.
You've put some thought on a solution though and the 'Sensor Area' is a great idea! Perhaps making a mod for it to be added to other games overtime will allow it to propagate to developers and become commonplace in gaming.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas! It's interesting how the lack of immersion in a game can feel like a detraction from the whole gaming experience.
give credit where credit is due. the sensor area idea comes from the dying light's developer tools, where there is this dynamic object called sensor area. it's easy to implement and track player location, just like tracking what the player has changed in the world, that then allows NPCs to mention it. some games track all this stuff to give NPCs a more realistic feel, and yeah, i like it too, when NPCs mention stuff we changed in the world, etc. what i don't get is why not all games do this by standard, especially big games that pour resources into visuals and ambiente audio and all that, ro make games realistic. then, they lack in so much simpler stuff, like NPCs not being a dumb bot. i eas playing Control and this example was from that game. super cool aesthetics, ray tracing, great ambience, all that - and then they don't do simple thing that makes the world not feel real, with NPCs being blind. so dumb.