Jacco said:
I simply want to enjoy the little time I have playing video games and not have to pour 100's of hours into it just to get to a point where I can enjoy it. To me, that's not fun. Getting killed by someone in a tank that I literally have no means of defending against is not fun. Getting killed by machine gunners with the most powerful class weapons in Battlefield is not fun.
There are two different aspects of gaming at work here and they, unfortunately, feed into each other.
First off, you are correct that you should not have to be "skilled" in a game to enjoy it, and for the most part new games are not designed for the elite gamer only. Many MMOs are designed so that anyone and everyone can hop in and start playing, the learning curve isn't so horrid that you have to have a degree in video games to get out of the starting zone. Unfortunately, that means ANYONE can join the game and, as you have learned, there is a sad fact about the gaming community we all must face: some gamers are @$$holes.
While we have fun taking up quests, exploring the world, crafting and selling items (I've not played GTA:O, so I'm pulling a lot of my knowledge here from WoW, Rift and Star Wars; if there is no crafting, sorry) and the occasional dungeon or PvP game, there are those who can ONLY have fun when they are ruining other people's day. These gamers will spend hundreds of hours and hundreds of dollars getting their characters up to the highest level so they can camp the starting points and "pwn noobs". That is the only way they can enjoy the game.
Psychologists believe the reason you see so many of this kind of person in the video gaming world is because it is a world they can easily manipulate and control. Gamers who find enjoyment in harming those who cannot defend themselves, they say, are people who feel they have no control or power in their own lives, people who feel they are being attacked by forces against which they are powerless and they are attempting to gain some control over some aspect of their lives. Others do it because there are no consequences for their actions and they indulge their curiosities and do what society has told them his wrong without fear of repercussions (the reason why some nice people will always choose the evil options in video games).
Now, the people you have met on the forum boards who are telling you to "quit whining" are not these types of gamers. Some might be, but most are probably victims of past "pwnages" who have learned the best way to beat them is to be stronger than them. When I first started playing WoW, my starting area got attacked by a group of high level players and when we asked for help via the World Chat, we were told to simply "deal with it or stop playing". Eventually, one of the "noobs" signed off and came back online with a higher level character she had for just such an occasion. After chasing the offenders away, she told me the only way she could enjoy the game was to have a "protector" character in storage. No one had helped her when she first started, she had to learn how to help herself.
Though it is the simplest solution, logging off when things get hairy often feels like surrender or that you are "admitting" that these bullies are "scaring" you with their "skills and power", but remember that these guys are only camping the spawn point because killing low level characters to them is fun. If people stop respawning, they will no have fun, they will get bored and leave.
Good luck.