| Just take away the carrot. Find a way to make an MMORPG where the Single Solitary Important Thing in the game isn't primarily getting max level, and people won't speed through your content to get to max level.
As-is, a big chunk of the population of WoW isn't playing because of sweet quests and lore. They are just playing because they want to get real big numbers; level 80, purple gear, tradeskills maxed, a high arena rating, and once they get the big numbers, they can attack the hardest content, which means they "win" the game in some sense. You are never going to get people like that to pay attention to your leveling content unless you make it interest them more than big numbers and winning, which may or may not be possible in the sort of game we're acclimated to as a "MMORPG." | 