Should story be necessary in a MMORPG?

As a RPG (role-playing game) fan, the two things that I always loved from the genre was their stories and exploring their worlds. It wasn't about how great their combat mechanics were or what loot dropped. Not to say I don't like those aspects, but how well written and well executed the games's story was the selling point for myself and RPGs.

I have played several different MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) over the years and have been enthralled by many. While I have spent numerous hours in front of the computer screen playing these titles I would still consider myself a casual MMORPG gamer. I have never once played "end-game" material in one of those type of games and while many would argue that's the crux of the game, I would disagree.

A player spends countless number of hours preparing a character and getting him or her to that final level for its "end game" content. It's within this time that the game needs to try really hard to snare the player or otherwise to get from level one to level 'x' is going to be long and tedious.

This is where MMORPGs always lose me. I absolutely abhor the hot-keyed, level grinding, almost turn-based combat mechanics. So it's usually left to the exploration and PVP (player vs. player) elements to hold my attention. Unfortunately, most of the time this always goes back to needing to level up to progress further or perform any better.

Story is something that drives the game for me. It's the element that makes me endure the rooted combat and its endless level grind. I want to find out how my character is affected, what challenges he or she will face next, and overall what the results and lasting impact was.

However, with long walls of quest text to read and typical missions such as fetch quests for 'x' amount of items or kill so-and-so or 'x' amount of monsters, it leaves a lot to be desired. Also, I don't want to see something that my character worked hard to acheve all to be undone because the building I was sent to plan explosives on suddenly respawned a few minutes after I just blew it up.

Luckily, I feel that MMORPGs are finally heading in the right direction. New games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic add in a much stronger story pillar that was much needed in past titles in the genre. Firefall and Guild Wars 2 also produce new ways of storytelling through dynamic events that happen around the player which add new story elements to shape your characters own story. In subsequent articles I want to examine each of the story elements used in those games, but for now I just left with the posed question: Should story be necessary in a MMORPG?