I think it depends on the battle system. Is it enjoyable?

Fifteen or so years ago I enjoyed grinding in Final Fantasy. Not anymore.

Recently I've had great fun messing around with Dragon's Dogma that I don't even care if I'm grindind or not.

I enjoy Demon Souls' combat but if I die and lose my souls I think I played for nothing all along.

There are games like The Witcher 2 (if I rightly remember) where grinding has no sense since you get XP only through quest completion, not fighting.

Does people really like grindind? What are your thoughts on this?

The Disgaea games are all about grinding. Level up to 9999, reincarnate your character, resetting them back to level 1 so you can start all over again. The main story in each game is easily beatable around level 100, but you're probably going to want your characters to have combined levels in the tens of thousands (if not more) to take on the post game content. Not only do you have to level up your characters, but you have to grind up your equipment too (only up to 300 (at least D4, earlier Disgaea games may have had a cap of 100 or 200, I can't remember)). For even more grinding, the games now have the grinding of stat aptitudes (basically how effective characters are at wielding items), completely independent of level grinding. I don't know how many hundreds of hours I've put into D4, but I'm at the point where I can level my characters from 1 to 9999 in probably under a minute. AND there's still more post-game stuff I haven't done yet.

Grinding works really well in those games because the entire gameplay is designed around grinding. Grinding in all other games is bad. Actually, games are usually more fun if you don't grind (unless you don't like a challenge, then you should just watch a "let's play" on YouTube).

It all depends on how fun the grind is and how bad your OCDness is. Look at some of the games back in the 1990s and 2000s. Diablo II comes to mind first for me. I could easily go through and beat the game; however I always like filling out the map whenever I played. I don't know how many hours I've spent just grinding in that game. Same crap over and over again, and I only liked playing the Necromancer too, so that added to the monotony. I loved grinding away in any FF game to make sure I could easily get through boss fights, (although sometimes I was grinding because of the fact that I was lost and had forgotten what to do). XCOM UFO DEFENSE!!!!! WHOOO!!!

Rewards are also very nice when grinding too. Try and make me your errand boy for bits of cash or upgrades I can buy, (Grand Theft Auto, although I haven't played it in awhile), and I'll think to myself: Mehhh, need something else to do. You tell me I'm going to save your village and paint me a little trophy on the screen and I'll scream:
PREPARE TO BE WATCHED EVIL WET PAINT!!!!! YOU'RE NEXT GLACIER!!!!!

I've got a job in real life, I don't need another one in a game, although I have to admit I had been playing World Of Warcraft for at least 5 years or so. Finally switched to Guild Wars 2 for some new content and "regulated" economy.

Grinding is just an easy way to add cheap content. Sure, I could make 5 new dungeons worth of content. Or I can make you kills slimes for a few hours to level up instead.

I appreciate the games that can keep the experience fresh without devolving to mindless grinds. On the other hand, that's understandably difficult and expensive.

Depends on the context. A grind, by definition, is the same thing over and over and over ...

No.

For me too. Although there are other things like: exploring the dungeon completely, mastering a new attack in an action RPG, getting a rare drop. I personally feel very dissatisfied if a boss of an area is too easy, because I have ground too much. It's like the game is saying: you've wasted so much time that I'll make this easy on you (even though it's supposed to be hard).
The problem sometimes is that enemies are thrown at you whether you like it or not. It is annoying; whether that is bad depends on intentions and effect.
Getting random rewards makes it addictive to fight repeatedly. Such things are: rare enemies, rare drops/steals, rare battle bonuses.
In Tales-of-games you get a "grade" for each battle. It is an extra challenge to get a good score or a large combo. I like those challenges.

I think the definition of grinding relates to postponing key battles intentionally.

Grinding, for the most part, is always a bad idea. The less grinding you need to perform to win a game, the more fun it will be as a game.

I feel I should point out that some of the "games" out there that have lots of grinding aren't necessarily supposed to gaming experiences but social experiences, like the majority of MMORPGs.

Grinding essentially artificially lengthens the experience of a game by adding arbitrary restrictions as to how and when you can proceed with the game proper.

However, it's also important to note that in order for grinding to be a thing at all, there needs to be a story and an end goal. Without either, the game relies on repeat plays to be entertaining which is not the same as grinding. (It becomes grinding however when you start trying to go for achievements or high scores, but so long as those aren't necessary for enjoying the game, they don't get in the way of the game.)

I remember this quote from somewhere.

Putting a lot of tedious grinding in your game is going to reduce the fun. So you better compensate by making your game more interesting.

I wouldn't class Demons's Souls as a grinding game. It's only grinding if you want to get more points not a forced part of the game, which is no different to almost every game in existance.

I think grinding may have an added social value on MMO. It's like hanging out with friends. So it can't be that bad

On single player... that's a different story.

For me, if I find myself grinding, I assume there must be another way to get there that I haven't found, so I go look for it. It's fine if that way is really really hard to find, as long as I can be confident that it's there. If it's not, then the game is buggy and I'll lose interest soon.

A game with mandatory grinding is not challenging: it just demands that I spend time doing boring repetitive things so I can continue doing what I came for in the first place. Successful grinding does not give me a sense of achievement, because I haven't done anything particularly difficult, I have just sat through a boring lecture; there is nothing satisfying in that, except the relief that it's over, but I don't see why I would willingly subject myself to this when I can have a real gaming experience with so many other games. Mandatory grinding is a flaw at best, an evil marketing plot at worst.

If, however, the grinding is wrapped up in a way that it can be done unattended, then the story changes. For example, if I have a character that I want to develop, and I can tell the game what I want my character to work on while I'm offline, then that's not really grinding - it turns real-world time into an in-game resource, and while this means more in-game time becomes a valuable resource, it also means that the act of using it moves from repetitive clicking to making efficient time management decisions. It binds my character's time, but not my own, because the grinding is equally efficient whether I attend it or not. I might even enjoy playing a game where you could fiddle with a bunch of parameters that determine your character's actions (say, hostility, cautiousness, time spent on various everyday tasks, acceptable trade rates, etc.) and then you'd have to leave him/her alone for a week.

Because of the fact that his question mentioned battle systems and Final Fantasy. I hope hot girls don't come with battle systems like in FF.

Are you implying that hot girls aren't a sort of final fantasy for most posters here?