Upkeep and Taxes in Wizard101?

I got a very upset message from my blog buddy Cassandra:

Big trouble ahead, blog buddy!
BIIIG Trouble!!
In February, their going to put gold payments and taxes on items and houses.
Payments cost half of your house, IN GOLD!
If we don't pay it, all our stuff is moved to the attic and we cant access homes until we pay.
THIS IS BAD!!
We cant let this happen!!
Please tell me you're against this!

*UPDATE* This has been verified to be untrue!! Thanks to Luke Darkblood for doing the footwork on this one and getting the response we're looking for from Professor Greyrose! *UPDATE*

*unruffles feathers*

ok, first, I need to know where this rumor comes from. Link me!

Second, what you're talking about here is reminding me of Lord of the Rings Online, which I've been dabbling in lately on the side. Let me show you how it works in that game, and then we can make a few metaphors and talk about how it "feels" in game to pay things like upkeep.

Ok, hey y'all this is my house in LOTRO!


There's like two rooms inside of this. hehe. it's horrible compared to Wizard101 housing except for one thing. I have cool neighbors. It'd be awesome if I had a neighbor in Wizard101.


Anyway, so I paid 1 gold for my house in LOTRO. That's actually a pretty good amount of money since they also have copper and silver money. So I have to pay 50 silver a week to keep my house. It's called "upkeep." 50 silver is 1/20th the total cost of my house. (I'm paid up on my house until 21 Jan, whew, buffer)


So, before my life in Wizard101, I played quite a bit of LOTRO. When I left the game, of course, I stopped paying my upkeep and I was locked out of my house. A year later I logged on to the game and guess what, there's my house in the same neighborhood, and I unlocked it and paid all my upkeep dues. That's nice! It's still there!

So, if Wizard101 were to use the exact same system as LOTRO, it would mean this. Say the cheapest house is 8000 gold, that would mean I'd have to pay 400 gold each week to keep my house. Not bad I guess. Now if the same 1/20th upkeep rule were applied to school houses. That would mean I'd be paying 5000 a week on upkeep. That's significant, but I'd rather pay 1/20th than 1/2 LOL. That would be insane.

How does this make me feel in LOTRO to have to pay upkeep? Well, I guess there's a bit of reality to it. It makes me feel very poor that I don't have a fancy house in LOTRO and it really makes me think about "what's the purpose of having a house" even more. Some people won't buy them because they see them as a waste of money. BUT, the people who love their houses and have the really really expensive houses take a new sense of pride about their house because people know that it's a bit of a challenge to maintain an expensive house.

HOWEVER, if you've been getting something for free and then you get upkeep charges applied to you, it kind of makes you feel a little upset. I don't like the idea of having to pay upkeep; however, wizard101 does have the coolest housing out there so . . . I guess it kind of makes sense to inject a bit more importance to having a house since it's such a big part of this game.

At this point, this is nothing more than a rumor. But, does upkeep happen in other games? Absolutely. What is the end result of upkeep? I farm bosses for loot.

*UPDATE* This has been verified to be untrue!! Thanks to Luke Darkblood for doing the footwork on this one and getting the response we're looking for from Professor Greyrose! *UPDATE*

Happy Dueling!