Is there a such thing as a fun mmorpg?

I have been playing mmorpgs for about 7 or 8 years now.  Everything from Nexus TK (which was awesome in its day) to WoW.  I spent 4 years off and on playing Nexus TK.  Over a year playing Ragnarok.  About 6 months playing Rose Online.  And the most recent, WoW since April.  In between these titles I have tried a month of pretty much every other mmo to date.  My main concern when looking for an mmorpg is how long it takes to actually start having fun playing.  Grinding to max level or mindlessly raiding (WoW) 24/7 is not my cup of tea.  I have 1 lvl 60 on WoW, and have been in the process of working on a 2nd 60 for the past few weeks now.  I realised a few days ago that I am not having fun playing WoW for the reasons mentioned above.  I hate being dependent on other people to progress or even have fun playing an mmorpg.  Yes I know that mmo stands for massively multi player and most people think that means grouping 24/7.  I play mmorpgs because things change unlike single player games, I don't play them to party with other people even though some times I don't mind.

As of now I am in search of an mmorpg that doesn't take months to start being fun.  Something that doesn't have a grind to max level, unless the grind is really short.  Something that has balanced pvp between long time players and new players alike.  By balanced I don't mean between classes.  Class balance is always a problem and I understand that.  One of the main problems I have with WoW is the pvp.  A newly leveled 60 has no business fighting a tier 2 epic set 60.  As it is now, I would have to raid MC/BWL for a year or longer before I could even compete with the people in the battlegrounds.  I don't want to have to wait that long before I can have fun pvping.

Back to the game Nexus TK for a second.  I know alot of people haven't even heard of this game, much less played it before.  It has been around for years and the graphics are out of date.  Back when I played this I had so much fun because of the pvp system.  Nexus has a thing called Carnages, which is where the biggest part of the pvp occurs.  They happen 2-3 time a day and are broken up into sections based on levels.  There is a carnage for lvl 7-35, 36-65, 66-85, 86-98, and a couple more for players that are over lvl 99.  Over 99 means you spent exp to "buy" life or mana.  But anyways, back to my point.  The pvp here is fun because levels are balanced.  The gear say a lvl 66 wears isn't much different than a lvl 85.  There are no level based resists either, so casters don't have to be within 2 levels of the target. (ie. WoW)  Even if you are new to the game, getting to level 85 might take a few days tops.  And if you take your time you can still have fun on the way to that level because there are carnages for every level.  This game was based more on skill than level to an extent.  The highest level carnage has people with 2-3 million life playing with others that have 300-400k life.  I will leave this carnage level out of the argument, because that obviously isn't balanced.

Are there any mmos out there that are fun from the first day of play?  If so, please name them.