All checklists, in one printable place
Every checklist from the five steps, gathered here in order. This page is formatted to print cleanly, which is the point of it: the computer you are setting up is often not the one you are reading on.
How to use these lists
The lists are deliberately plain. They are printed lists of boxes on a page, not controls you tick on screen, and this site has no way of remembering what you have done — it stores nothing on your computer at all. If you want to keep track, print the page and use a pen, or copy the items into whatever you normally use for lists.
Work through them in order. The sequence matters more than it looks: the figures you write down in the Step 2 list are what you compare against a requirements page, the decisions in the Step 3 list are what make the Step 4 registration quick, and the position you write down in the Step 5 list is only useful if you wrote it before seeing a purchase screen. Doing them out of order mostly works, but it tends to mean repeating things.
None of these items has a deadline, and nothing expires if you leave a list half done. A reasonable pace is one step per evening across a week. A reasonable alternative is to do Steps 1 to 3 in one sitting, because they are all reading and deciding, and leave Step 4 for a day when a long download is convenient.
Several items ask you to look something up on an Australian government site rather than taking our word for it. That is intentional. Classification decisions, consumer rights, privacy rights and online safety guidance all come from bodies that publish them for free and keep them current, and a commercial site is not the right source for any of them. Those items usually take two or three minutes each.
If you are working through this on behalf of someone else — a parent looking at a game a child has asked for, or someone helping a less confident relative — the Step 3 and Step 5 lists are the two that matter most, and they can be done without installing anything.
Each list below links back to the step it came from, where the reasoning behind each item is set out properly. The lists are summaries; the steps are the explanation.
Before you start the course
- Identify which desktop or laptop computer you would actually play on. This category of game is distributed for Windows, macOS and Linux computers.
- Check roughly how much free storage that computer has.
- Decide which email address you would use, and confirm you can open messages sent to it.
- Decide, before seeing any purchase screen, whether you intend to spend money at all in the first month.
Step 1 — What these games are
- Write down, in one sentence, what you personally want out of this.
- Confirm the device you have in mind runs Windows, macOS or Linux.
- Note that free to play means no cost to start, not no cost at all, and decide whether that changes your interest.
- Decide whether playing against other live people appeals to you or puts you off.
- Read the eSafety Commissioner's gaming guidance if a young person in your household is involved.
- Have somewhere to note things down as you go.
Step 2 — Will your computer run it
- Open your computer's system information panel and write down the processor name in full, model number included.
- Write down the installed memory in gigabytes.
- Write down the graphics adapter, and whether it is a separate card or built into the processor.
- Write down the free space on the drive you would install to, and that drive's total capacity.
- Note your connection speed and any remaining data allowance for the month.
- Compare each line against the vendor's own published requirements page.
- Decide which outcome you are in: above recommended, in between, borderline, or well below.
- Update your graphics driver from the hardware maker's own site.
- Pick a time of day when a very large download will not inconvenience anyone else.
Step 3 — Classification, terms and your details
- Search the Australian Classification Board record for the exact title, and read the category, the consumer advice and the decision date.
- Skim the terms of service for account ownership, conduct and suspension, changes to the service, purchases and refunds, and inactivity.
- Read the vendor's privacy policy for what is collected, what is shared, where it is stored, and how to request access or deletion.
- Decide which email address the account will use.
- Decide on a password approach: long, unique, recorded in a password manager.
- Check whether two-factor authentication is offered, and plan to turn it on straight away.
- Choose a public nickname that does not identify you offline.
- Commit to reaching the vendor's site by typing its address rather than following a link from a message.
- Note where to report a problem: the vendor first, then Scamwatch or the ACCC.
Step 4 — First account and tutorial
- Reach the vendor's site directly and open the registration form there.
- Register with the email address, nickname and password decided in Step 3.
- Open the confirmation message and follow its link; check the junk folder, and use resend rather than registering twice.
- Download the launcher from the vendor's own site only.
- Choose the drive with enough free space, and stop the machine sleeping during the download.
- Start the download when nobody else needs the connection.
- Sign in, then turn on two-factor authentication if it is offered.
- Set graphics to the lowest preset, confirm it is smooth, then raise settings gradually.
- Read the control list once before you need it, and change only the keys that feel wrong.
- Find the mute, report, privacy and chat settings before your first live match.
- Complete the tutorial or training mode.
Step 5 — Spending and staying in control
- Write down your spending position before seeing a purchase screen: nothing for now, a fixed amount in Australian dollars over a set period, or one specific named item.
- Check whether the game sells randomised purchases, and weigh that in any decision involving a young person.
- Avoid storing a payment method in the game or launcher.
- Keep purchase confirmation emails where you can find them.
- Review the purchase history after the first month against what you wrote down.
- Check free space on the install drive again after a few months of updates.
- Decide how many evenings a week this should occupy, and notice if the answer drifts.
- Note which body handles which complaint: ACCC, Scamwatch, OAIC, eSafety Commissioner, ACSC.
- If you stop, uninstall the game, remove any stored payment method, and decide whether to close the account or leave it dormant.