A serious question here: 

Do you guys play MMOs even when you feel that all you do is grind for XP?  

That's a good attitude to have towards games in general. I hate it when Jeff or Ryan rush through a game with the only goal seemingly being either to just finish the game asap or to get achievements, instead of having fun along the way.

Anyway, MMOs are best when they make you forget how repetitive they are, when you somehow don't question the fact that you are killing the same enemies you did 40 levels ago.

I played WoW and AoC the same way, i just stopped when i wasn't having fun, and the fun didn't last very long in either case. Think my Steam clients says i have around 70 hours in AoC, don't know about WoW havent played that in years. 
 
But to me the quests become boring and like a job. I already have a job, so i don't need a virtual one. I just want to have fun.

I play a huge amount for the first free month of the game seeing most of the content and then stop

I did that with WoW, i got up to level 60 (this was when 70 was the level cap) and i just stopped because it was boring. I stuck by AoC and Warhammer online for longer, just because i played both with some old guild member, which made it more enjoyable, that and we did alot of PvP. To be honest PvP makes MMO's more interesting for me and allows me to play it for longer than its usual timespan. I did this with Star Wars Galaxies for a long time, even though the game was pretty much dead at that point.

MMO's are podcast and guild chat fodder for me.

I don't, I've played a couple of MMO's and i find that they all suck. Just ain't my cup of coffee. Or is it tea? Nah, i don't drink tea, tea is for old laddies and Englishmen. The repetitiveness, the lack of any semblance of a plot, the non existing characters referred to as  NPCs,   the guys that will assign me a bunch of fetch and/or kill things x time quests, who stare into my eyes with their soulless expression.  Even with the fact that you can play MMOs for hundreds of hours and the fact that you're playing with real people doesn't help the fact that you're basically playing tetris.

I don't! 
 
is that a legit answer?

To answer your question, fuck no. If I have to do things I don't like in a game, I'm not going to play it.

WTF are you guys on? A fanatic MMORPG player plays to quench unbound ambition. Be it high-end PvE or competitive PvP. To be elite. Play with the best. Be better than the rest. Leveling is just there to make a character and class grow on you. You'll do the true growing playing the endgame. Maximizing yourself and your avatar. Leveling is Kindergarten. Graduation is beating your first raid dungeon or topping leaderboards in PvP.
 
That said, I enjoy MMOs the most until I reach 'Graduation Day'. These days, I lose interest after a month or two of endgame raiding, when it starts to be about beating hardcore blocker encounters. Just ain't got that much ambition anymore. Have lost my PvP ambitions a long time ago. I prefer 'real' games like Battlefield to do my competition in.
 
I guess up to now only casual players cared enough to answer. I've never really played with casuals. I cannot fathom enjoying MMORPGs without a driving ambition. Of course if your driving ambition is to collect vanity pets and other busy-work like arbitrary achievements, yeah - I know a couple of hardcore casuals too. In the end though - everybody who enjoys MMOs for long has ambition fueling his endeavors. Without ambition the gameplay just ain't cutting it in comparison to more direct action oriented games and straight up managers and strategy games. Going stale almost instantly.
 
I guess my MMO ambition these days is to grow me a race horse. Show up for the first tier of races. Win a race and retire.

With WoW, I just played to level and explore new areas. I really liked the environments and music. Level 1-60 Post-Cata was a pretty great experience, too, seeing how a lot was changed and feeling the difference. I'd always lose interest though once I got to max level and just start a new char.
 
In AoC, I played because I literally never stopped having fun with the combat system. It was, and still is, one of a kind and playing a melee character in any other MMO has never been as fun or involving as playing a Dark Templar/Barbarian/Assassin/etc in AoC. I've put more hours into that than I care to know. Loved the raiding in that as well despite some of the janky mechanics, but stopped playing before beating T2.
 
EVE was a different story altogether, and even though I didn't play it as long as either of the above mentioned, it still took a big portion of my time.
 
As for all the other MMOs I've played, I generally couldn't last long enough to see what they had to offer. I'd get bored within the first 20 or so levels, but at that point I usually had a pretty good idea of what they did differently.

Sounds like some of you should try EVE online... it's completely different in a lot of ways. It's the only MMO I can tolerate nowadays, after countless 'traditional' games in the genres and WoW clones that come out every year.

PM me if you want a buddy pass for a free 21-day trial. It's worth at least checking out if you're suffering from regular MMO fatigue. Although in the long run, it definitely isn't for everyone...

@Seppli said:

WTF are you guys on? A fanatic MMORPG player plays to quench unbound ambition. Be it high-end PvE or competitive PvP. To be elite. Play with the best. Be better than the rest. Leveling is just there to make a character and class grow on you. You'll do the true growing playing the endgame. Maximizing yourself and your avatar. Leveling is Kindergarten. Graduation is beating your first raid dungeon or topping leaderboards in PvP.

Yes. Leveling is like the tutorial. Endgame is the, well, game. That's what I always had the most fun with personally, raids and wiping the floor with fools in pvp at max level with great gear. Ambition definitely plays a large role. It can be pretty satisfying to establish yourself as one of the best in whatever you do, and this applies to MMO's as well.