WoW, I just got blown away

Er, it's not the caching that would be draconian, it would be charging people extra if they didn't use "approved" textures.

Ahh so we should have WoW type performance in SL for free or it would be draconian like WoW is charging people for a service to pay it's employees and running costs?
Or we shouldn't charge people for using another new red brick texture that looks the same to 99% of the population as the other 100 red brick textures already clogging the library and adding to our monthly download charges?

we can also say that SL is built by little amateurs, nowhere near the level of professional level designers.

This is a false dichotomy. WoW simply works on a different basis; all of the content is designed by the owners, almost none of the content in SL is designed by the owners.

If you can invent a way to determine whether a texture could be easily replicated by a stock one, or is in fact necessary (say, a sign, a specialised HUD button, anything involving text, or simply one which is actually far _better_ than an existing one) I would be interested to see it, but charging people ten times as much to upload things is otherwise pointless, and would just lead to higher prices for items and a burgeoning world of grey- or black-market texture sales.

Well the problem I see is at present is we have to keep downloading all these textures repeatedly because nobody has the guts to say here are 15 red brick wall textures on your default list, take one of them or pay to submit your own to the list.
Nice wall texture mate, pity it takes 60 seconds (and costs me money in internet connection requirements) to see it every time I come into my regular hangout.
Somehow we got to stop downloading and uploading these things will nilly.
Or perhaps LL could make a system where common textures like walls floors etc were stored on your hard drive while others or new walls were downloaded as you saw them so you could plaster a whole sim with individual custom redbrick walls but a sim with default ones is going to be better for performance or at least your custom redbrick sim would be similar performance the second time you entered it.
Yes maybe content crators would charge more for their content, but the do the work to earn it, being undermined by every noob in the place so they have to charge peanuts for good work wouldn't be fun I bet, every one here can be a content creator anyway.

So in non-technical terms:

- WoW is like watching a DVD HQ movie from a DVD disc located in your computer DVD player.

- SL is like watching a *streaming* video located somewhere in California. With the extra touch that it is not even a static movie like the one you are watching on your DVD but a *dynamic interactive* video.

I guess, the only way to see the same quality is after all residents start using the Internet2+, when and if it becomes available.

Yes and there is a meter running charging you as you watch (your ISP charges).

Where other platforms charge you to buy the program, then charge you for monthly access but you ISP requirements are less as the only data moving about is positions of characters and your actions.