I would love this idea.

I admit, the possibility of forcing the matter as SWG did (although they did it pretty nicely, and I do personally favour thm doing so) can go very wrong and be very uncomfortable if done indelicately. However at the very least I do think the developers need to chase the NPCs out of the guilds and taverns, or at least from some of the tables, and let players sit around them and talk instead.