This might be a stupid questions considering this is, well, WoW, but here we go anyway.

Does anyone know of a WoW server where most people take the game seriously?

Now when I say "seriously", I mean rather simple things like character names that aren't phrases or words, but actual names. Guilds that are similarly named. People who might actually get into character a little bit. In short, people who take their gaming seriously.

Does anyone know of such a server in existence? 

There is no server of any mmorpg anywhere that meets those standards.

I know  that there are serious guilds.

If your goal is a server-wide population that acts the way you want, your best bet is an RP server (which statistically performs below the normal pvp server in terms of p ve progression and pvp competition).

When i used to play wow, i had a warlock that was properly named for the class (son of hades), and not somethin like warlockpwnzomg. I had a group of friends in my guild where we RP'd frequently when we went on farm raids etc. That was the closest i got to what you aim for.

its a shame really that the game is literally filled with "Pwn" "Zomg" "Epix" "Nub"-oriented ppl, otherwise i would have stayed. They just become boring so damn fast, and eventually take the fun away from everything

Originally posted by drogtor

If your goal is a server-wide population that acts the way you want, your best bet is an RP server (which statistically performs below the normal pvp server in terms of p ve progression and pvp competition).

When i used to play wow, i had a warlock that was properly named for the class (son of hades), and not somethin like warlockpwnzomg. I had a group of friends in my guild where we RP'd frequently when we went on farm raids etc. That was the closest i got to what you aim for.

its a shame really that the game is literally filled with "Pwn" "Zomg" "Epix" "Nub"-oriented ppl, otherwise i would have stayed. They just become boring so damn fast, and eventually take the fun away from everything

You should check out Moon Guard. There are a ton of very talented RPers there. The community is generally pretty mature...atleast compared to the other servers. The names are mostly RP oriented.

If you're serious about being serious about MMO gaming in this day and age....then you should seriously look for a game other than WoW.  My "serious" MMORPG, is probably EQ2, or Ultima Online, or (even though I presently don't subscribe) Vanguard.  But even in any of those games, there are always going to be people who are NOT "serious" about the game.  That's the nature of MMOs, they, like the real world, are full of ALL DIFFERENT kinds of people.

Thanks all for the responses.

I know that an entire server isn't likely to be "serious", but I was hoping to find one that had a higher than average ratio.

I checked out Vanguard and was pleasantly surprised by what I found, but I'm severely torn about giving more money so SOE and to a game that probably doesn't have much of a future.

But nothing is off the table yet.

I'd resub for a well-done progression server.  Lots of people would, actually - certainly enough to make it worth Blizzard's time.

If you want "serious" play RL DnD with people that aren't tards.  That's probably about the best you can hope for.

Call me jaded, but the only kind of seriousness I see in WoW these days revolve around people being serious about their arena rating, number of epics, achievements made and how many characters they got to level 80 spending the least number of days played.

Roleplaying is dead.

People go to RP servers in WoW not to roleplay, but because it scares some of the worst kids away (at least those that can read) and because people are generally a bit more casual there.

Yes, if you look long enough,  you will find some people on a RP server that actually roleplays, but chances are your little RP session will be ruined by someone named "Imalolzorc" running around in circles while jumping and spamming his most annoying ability.

Try LOTRO, EQII or VG. I believe you can get free trials of all 3, although with LOTRO you're currently stuck with the EU version being the only one with a free trial. You can still play it from the states, but your characters will be left to rot on the EU servers if you decided to sign up for the US version.

Originally posted by Faelan

Call me jaded, but the only kind of seriousness I see in WoW these days revolve around people being serious about their arena rating, number of epics, achievements made and how many characters they got to level 80 spending the least number of days played.

Roleplaying is dead.

People go to RP servers in WoW not to roleplay, but because it scares some of the worst kids away (at least those that can read) and because people are generally a bit more casual there.

Yes, if you look long enough,  you will find some people on a RP server that actually roleplays, but chances are your little RP session will be ruined by someone named "Imalolzorc" running around in circles while jumping and spamming his most annoying ability.

Try LOTRO, EQII or VG. I believe you can get free trials of all 3, although with LOTRO you're currently stuck with the EU version being the only one with a free trial. You can still play it from the states, but your characters will be left to rot on the EU servers if you decided to sign up for the US version.

Don't listen to this guy, he is jaded and also completely wrong.

Try Earthen Ring-EU RP realm.  (If you're EU, if not, then I can't be of help)

Originally posted by Recant

Don't listen to this guy, he is jaded and also completely wrong.

Try Earthen Ring-EU RP realm.  (If you're EU, if not, then I can't be of help)

Click on the name of the OP and you'll be able to check his location. He is from the states, so your server recommendation is unfortunately of no use to him.

I'm in the EU however, so I took your advice and rolled characters on both sides on Earthen Ring just to check out things.

Sadly, I wasn't too impressed after an hour or so. I saw no roleplaying. I did see several questionable names and a couple of really bad ones (still a lot better than regular servers though). Horde seemed pretty low population to me. As soon as I entered Stormwind, I was "greeted" by a guy bunny hopping in circles while yelling "giv gold PLZZZZZ" and my chat was almost instantly spammed with multiple gold seller ads. In short, same old same old. Please don't tell me he was roleplaying a retarded hyperactive beggar

But I did give you permission to call me jaded

Originally posted by girlgeek

If you're serious about being serious about MMO gaming in this day and age....then you should seriously look for a game other than WoW.  My "serious" MMORPG, is probably EQ2, or Ultima Online, or (even though I presently don't subscribe) Vanguard.  But even in any of those games, there are always going to be people who are NOT "serious" about the game.  That's the nature of MMOs, they, like the real world, are full of ALL DIFFERENT kinds of people.

QFT.

Any popular MMORPGs are going to have their fair share of idiots. People need to consider that MMO's are designed to bring thousands of people together, each with different personalities and attitudes. I think WoW gets a bad rap simply because it has more people playing generally, and therefore a larger number of idiots, but still a relative percentage compared to other games.

Yo Dawg, we heard you like to be serious while gaming.. So we put a sirius in yo WOW, so you can sirius while you serious

Originally posted by Faelan

Originally posted by Recant

Don't listen to this guy, he is jaded and also completely wrong.

Try Earthen Ring-EU RP realm.  (If you're EU, if not, then I can't be of help)

 

Click on the name of the OP and you'll be able to check his location. He is from the states, so your server recommendation is unfortunately of no use to him.

I'm in the EU however, so I took your advice and rolled characters on both sides on Earthen Ring just to check out things.

Sadly, I wasn't too impressed after an hour or so. I saw no roleplaying. I did see several questionable names and a couple of really bad ones (still a lot better than regular servers though). Horde seemed pretty low population to me. As soon as I entered Stormwind, I was "greeted" by a guy bunny hopping in circles while yelling "giv gold PLZZZZZ" and my chat was almost instantly spammed with multiple gold seller ads. In short, same old same old. Please don't tell me he was roleplaying a retarded hyperactive beggar

But I did give you permission to call me jaded

If you look for cracks you will find them. 

It is not possible to judge the community of a game from it's very extremities, the trade channels and the people with characters 5 minute old.   Earthern Ring has many very strict roleplaying guilds, like MMORPGs themselves, you'll not experience them until you've played for quite a while.  The experience deepens and blossoms over time as you begin to find people that you love to be with.  Unfortunately this usually means getting to near the end game first, because this is where the most devoted players are.

I'll happily admit that World of Warcraft is not the ideal backdrop for a hardcore RPer, but if you're that hardcore you should be using IRC anyway.  

Roleplaying is far from dead in WoW.   Seeing people spam [Dirge] in the chat channels does not automatically mean that your illusion of roleplay is broken, you should filter this stuff out if you're playing 'in character', like you're filtering the fact you're typing on a keyboard while staring at a 21st century display device.

Trust me there are many, many serious roleplaying guilds in WoW - once you've endeared yourself to the people in these communities that matter, I fail to see how you can go wrong.