Reason for disliking GTA

Having played one of the GTA games for a while on my mini-holiday, I have come to a realisation.

I always appreciated the idea of a grand open sandbox world in which a character can act as he pleases, so it always confused me as to why I didn't like the GTA games. Now I finally know.

For me, Sandbox games imply you can create your characters personality by choosing how he acts. In the GTA games, the characters are never someone I can sympathise with or genuinely wish to get ahead in life. They may be realistic characters, they may represent a facet of modern urban life that try as we might we cannot easily wish away, they may even have slight comedic turns at times, but that doesn't change the fact that outside of a minor amount of simple human concern I wouldn't feel particularly moved if they crashed one of their stolen cars into a lamp post and suffered broken bones. There is very little about the GTA characters that I am able to empathise with.

Yes, I realise the GTA games are not meant to be a moving narrative emotional drama within the gaming genre, but come on, how am I supposed to want to see the main character succeed if I don't LIKE him. If any of the main characters of the GTA series and I were in a car together on a long drive, we would have NOTHING to talk about.

Man, considering how big a nerd I proclaim myself to be, I really don't like alot of the common nerd games. Halo, Grand Theft Auto, Warcraft, Half Life... I must be an Indie nerd, or something.