My definition of grind is "doing the same thing over and over." This means that there is no content that I could do in order to make my time better used in a game.

A good example of this is AION around launch (before they added a bunch of content to fill the gaps). I do every quest and campaign I can to about 1/2 to 3/4 of a level. Then there is NOTHING but repeatable quests that do nothing to hide the fact that I'm grinding my buttocks off my uncomfortable chair (Back when AION first launched I had a horrible chair lol. It gave me back problems).

AION has 60 levels now, and just barely has enough story and quest content to justify one character. Final Fantasy XIV has you leveling from lv1-lv50. And leveling from lv50 again. And leveling from lv1-lv50 again, and again, and again. And this game has barely enough story/grand company/class/job content to justify levelling ONE class to lv50 without grinding your way to kingdom come.

I just got my first lv50 (MNK ftw!) and I'm already done with the main scenario quests, the pugilist quests, the monk quests, every Grand Company/Maelstrom Quest except a fair few, and have almost done every instanced dungeon this game has to offer. I'm pretty much at the end of the game. All I need is 50,000 seals (which is easy peasy), one more promotion, my relic weapon quest, 2 more Grand Company Quests, and I've finished Final Fantasy XIV as a Final Fantasy Game.

Leveling isn't a main part of Final Fantasy as much as it is its backbone. It's the infrastructure in which the story lays itself onto. Final Fantasy XIV doesn't need each class to take longer. Getting 4 classes to lv50 means levelling up 200 times. There's far too much leveling up in this game to justify its lack of content.

Want character growth like a Final Fantasy game? Players are grinding to lv50 on their alt classes because there's pretty much no content left after one lv50. Give us content to justify slowing down and smelling the roses, because right now there are no roses left to smell. Make it so that once we get to lv50 we only hit the tip of the ice burgh. Then the people who want a Final Fantasy story - who want character development - can finally slow down to smell the roses.