Why grinding in MMOs is bullshit

I got into an interesting argument with a friend I play Aion with today. The argument ensued when I mentioned my disapproval of the crafting system in the game. My argument was that it is so tedious and requires so much brainless grinding that makes the game feel a lot less like a game and more like work. I'll be damned, I said, if I'm going to pay all this money and a monthly fee for a game that (in order to get the cool stuff) expects me to go through a process that is inherently not fun.

My friend's argument goes into the psychology of playing videogames and stated that games, and particularly MMOs rely on a false sense of achievement to keep the players engaged and happily throwing away their $15.00/month. In order to have this sense of achievement, he asserted, it is necessary to make it tedious, time-consuming and boring to achieve things. This way your success will feel ever so much sweeter, enjoying the fruit of your labor.

For this reason, he said, grinding is a necessary part of any MMORPG. It feels like work because it IS work; just virtual work. The game provides a level of pleasure because you achieved something you worked hard for. There is no way to feel that pleasure of having accomplished something if you didn't have to go through pain to get there.

Apologies to my friend, but I partially disagree. I agree that achievements should be the fruit of hard work and time spent, but I completely disagree with the notion that the process towards a specific goal must be the opposite of fun in order for the result to be enjoyed. If we break it down to process and result, we can use all other game types as examples. Consider, for instance first-person shooters:

When you start playing an FPS, you get killed easily and lose a lot because you're not used to the weapons, don't know the maps and aren't familiar to the pace of the game. If you take losing very seriously, it is really easy to get frustrated and give up. However, if you want to get to leet l337 status, you have to play, and play, and play. This is the process. The result, of course, is that you'll be pwning n00bs all the way to victory. But you see, even the process is fun! Getting really good at an FPS by practicing a lot is also fun, even though you're losing half the time.

Why, then, can't an MMO make the process of leveling or the process of getting a high crafting level fun? I attribute it to lazy game design when the game producer fails to come up with a way to make the process fun, resorting to using old techniques that hinder the otherwise pleasant experience of playing their game. In the end, my point is the following: hard work and dedicated time is necessary to achieve a high status in any game. However, if the time dedicated involves tedious, boring and brainlessly repetitive work, you're doing something wrong.