Hehe, does sound contradictory doesn't it?
Level grinding and item hunting aren't related to a storyline, and you collect things in the process. (I'm a pack rat by nature

), usually the leveling and gameplay just get in the way of the story. Maybe that makes more sense.
Like, I loved FFIII (SNES) but I hated having to wade through hordes of random encounters to get to the next part.
I enjoyed Champions of Norrath and Return to Arms, Powering up skills, finding more powerful items, more powerful gems, etc...
(Basically more power. *insert Tim "the toolman" Taylor grunt here*
I'm pretty deadset against MMO's. They tend to be addictive and are often costly. Maybe not for everyone, but for enough people and I could be one of them.