Yeah, I too think grinding can become fun or frustrating depending on how its presented, and sometimes the players mood and their available play-time.

You can't grind if you only have 1 hour free of your day and want something exciting.

By the way Grinding in Video games existed since the first few ones I think, I know that FF1 & DQ1 are basically 'grinding' games with so little to do outside leveling, and it's not only related to RPG.