Fallout 3 : Quest =Time = Enjoyment??

So I have been playing the beast that is known has Fallout 3, Game of the Year Edition and I am no where near completion. I have 30+ hrs put into the game and I suspect there will be that many again multiplied by 2 before I have it completed. But because of my play style of I have do everything in the game.

The thing with this game is that it did not have me hooked outta the gate, I mean it was alright. But like a book that you read, if it doesn't hook you with the story in the beginning, then I find you have to force yourself through it until you do become interested in it. Not that the book is bad, it just starts really really slow. This is how I feel with Fallout 3, currently I am enjoying the heck outta this game at level 13.

But it wasn't up till level 8 that I could give a rats ass. Everything before that was a mundane experience, I didn't care about the quest or story. I think there was too much thrown at you from the start that I felt like it was all over the place. No real start with no real objective besides, "Here are 20 quest. go explore".

So the start of the game was very hard to get into and it felt more like a chore than fun. But after I spent more time in the world and started to knit pick the side quest away, then it started to become enjoyable. I stayed away from talking to people along the way, I stayed away from towns that were in my path on a way to a mission so I didn't get more quest on top of the one I was currently doing. I mean every time you encounter something it was either, Side Quest or kill it!

I don't need 15 side quest thrown at me within the first 30 min of play, its overwhelming and like a kid in the candy store I don't know what to choose first. But now that I have put in the time and gotten rid of all my side quest I can now focus on the main quest. I don't picking up a side quest or two or three on the way, but at that point I have to stop what I am doing and get them outta the way.
But all this time that I am spending on side quest took me to level 8, after that I started doing the main quest and that's when the game became fun. So now that I have uncovered some story and some sense of a main path to follow, I am really really enjoying Fallout 3. But the start of the game and the time required to get there is horrible. If I was someone who just said, "this is no fun" and turned it off based off the first 15 hrs, then I be losing out on a good game.

I heard that Final Fantasy 13 has the same thing, where it takes 25 hrs before the game really opens up to the player. So does RPG's have to drag you through the mud face first for 15-20 hrs before they become fun? I haven't played a RPG in a while, so perhaps this is the new formula?!

Point being, lots of hrs, enjoying it now, took too long before the game became enjoyable.