I really like GTA (except 4), and I don't mind that it has so much content. I work, have two kids, and play about an hour per day if I play at all.
I actually noticed that I enjoy games even more, because now that I don't have much time, I avoid mediocre games. I just finished Far Cry 4, did a 100% in 45 hours, which took me some 35 days.
Now I'm playing The Evil Within, and it's gonna take me probably to the end of January to finish it.
Basically, I play one game a month, 12 games per year, but I'm sure those are great games. And I never feel rushed...whenever I'm done I move on to the new one, be it a week or two months.  And, as I said, I haven't had so much enjoyment gaming in quite a while.

I agree with you, i did have a lot of fun with GTA but once i beated the Story missions i was done with it, despite its the most content filled GTA to date, i still got bored because at the end of the day i had done almost everything by the time i finished the game so i didnt felt the need to do anymore side activities, PLUS there is a LOT of games in my backlog that i havent played yet and i wanted to get some progress done with that.

That's just a lot of filler for me that is extremely boring. Tow cars? Why would I want to do that lol...Watching TV gets boring after the first couple of seconds. The Yoga mission is so annoying, strip clubs are fun for 5 minutes. Most of the things you listed I find fun to do for 5-10 minutes and then it just get repetitive for me. Maybe you enjoy them but for me they get very boring.

nah, I have always preferred open world types over most others. The thread is written like the author's opinion is suppossed to relate to everyone, yet I found almost nothing to relate to in it. The closest thing l ever did was stop playing jrpgs because they are too long. I have a large backlog, but I still bought the last gta day one and played a lot for about two months because there is a lot to do.

I don't like it because while you can 'do' a lot, you aren't actually doing anything. 99% of it is pointless, fun for only a very brief amount of time and without direction. I like 'open-world', but there has to be some kind of structure. The Elder Scrolls fails in this as well.

Hmmm I kind of agree, my overall interest in playing games has declined pretty significantly over the past 6 years or so.

Edit: I still try to play games on a daily basis but often find myself watching others on Twitch playing rather than I myself playing

Many people feel overly pressured by the times, personally I am completely out of function and labeled ill. Unfortunately, sandbox inspired games don't do much to reverse these fates. Skyrim was just an icing on the cake that triggered a severe depression in me that I somehow have managed to linger on through.  Hopefully coming generations will learn to relate with modern social media straight from childhood and not take it too seriously. Problem is, I am a very serious kind of person and what is expected from me really gets deep down at the same time as I am already loaded with trucks of heavy concepts detailing what I genuinely want to do (programming, design, writing- the list goes on). Even though I may resist the call, it costs extremely much to wage a war all on your own. This additive stacking lifestyle of garnering in an endless amount of experiences will eventually get to others as well. We must reinstate quality, over quantity.

I liked it back then and I pretty much like it the same now!!!! Times have changed,but I still get the same level of enjoyment out of Gta games.

This. Good taste and strict quality control are key.

That's why my gaming list for next year includes mostly Nintendo games!

None of that made any sense at all.