Seems that after these attacks occur, they can restore the ambient conversations between NPCs. It's not specifically vampire attacks that do this. It happened for me many months ago as a member of the Thieves Guild when I lured a truckload of Riften guards and citizens into the Ragged Flagon Cistern for an all-out battle with my guildmates (great fun, try it sometimes). Once that was over, the Thieves guild members suddenly had things to say to each other where they had been silent before (except to me).

And vampire atttacks seem to sort the problem too. By ambient conversations, I mean all of the pvssyr the NPCs exchange between one another (not the player). For reasons I'm not clear on, it's very easy for ambient conversations to enter a "stalled" state resulting in NPCs not saying a word to one another. In fact, I didn't even realize they were supposed to chat to one another until that incident with the Thieves guild.

But when it's working properly, you should hear these conversations pretty much everywhere you go. For example, my current character resides in Shor's Stone with Sylgia. This isn't the first time I've married off a character to Sylgia and chose to live in her home. But it is the first time I've heard anything but total silence amongst the miners residing there when they gather around the campfire every evening. Oldef (a Nord miner) will repeatedly complain that his orc roommate doesn't tidy up after himself. The orc insists that Redbelly mine is dry, much to the chagrin of the resident blacksmith who believes otherwise.

Such chit-chat should be heard in every settlement amongst NPCs. When it doesn't, it's been stalled somehow (and the effect is map-wide).

Eh I personally find vampire attacks fun in general it spices up the world imo.

I still don't get any vamp attacks.

I'm fine with them myself, but I'd rather this thread not quickly turn into a "Vampire attacks svck!" versus "No, they're great!" argument the likes of which we've seen plenty of already. Just wanted to point out something beneficial that can come from them (assuming of course you like to hear banter between NPCs).

Not just you I'm a glutton for punishment

Very well but sure is fun hearing guards saying "That even one scratch from a vampire can turn you into one!"

Now that you mention it, OP, you are right. I've always had some side conversations around the place, but it's restarted a lot more now.

My own upside is hearing the side conversations the Khajit have. Until DG, I would fast travel right into a city. Now I fast travel to the stables in order to time my arrival into the city for a time when the least number NPCs will be at risk. As a result, I come across the Khajit much more often so a) I get to sell stuff to them before going into the city and b ) I get to hear them talking to each other.