A five-step course for Australians who have never played an online PC game
Each step is one sitting of about ten minutes, and the five together take under an hour. You can stop after any step and still be better off than when you started.
How this site is paid for
PureScale Online carries paid affiliate links. If you follow one of them to a vendor's own website and create and activate an account there, the vendor's affiliate programme pays us a commission. You pay nothing extra, and nothing on this site is withheld from readers who never click. Commission does not decide which products appear in the course or what the course says about them — our funding page explains in full what does decide it.
The five steps
- Step 1 — What "free to play" actually means
The money in a free game, where it comes from, and the four business models you will meet. - Step 2 — Working out whether your computer can run it
Finding your own specifications on Windows, macOS and Linux, and reading a requirements list without guessing. - Step 3 — Classification ratings and in-game spending
What an Australian classification marking tells you, and how to read the terms attached to purchasable items. - Step 4 — Making an account and checking it works
Sign-up, verification, two-factor authentication, and the first-launch checks that save a wasted evening. - Step 5 — Living with an online game
Time, money, other players, reporting, and knowing when to stop or leave.
Who this course is for, and who it is not for
This workbook is written for an adult in Australia who has a laptop or a desktop computer, has never installed an online game on it, and has been asked by somebody — a friend, a child, a colleague — to try one. You may be curious yourself. You may simply want to know what your household is signing up to before anyone clicks anything.
It assumes nothing. You do not need to know what a graphics card is, what a client is, or why a game would be free. Every term is explained on the first occasion it is used.
It is not for you if you already play PC games regularly. It is also not a technical support service: we cannot see your computer, and we are not able to recover anyone's account.
What you will be able to do when you finish
After Step 1 you will be able to look at any free game and say, in a sentence, how it expects to make money from you. After Step 2 you will be able to open your own system information panel, write down six numbers, and compare them against a published requirements list without asking anybody.
After Step 3 you will be able to find an Australian classification marking and the terms attached to in-game purchases. After Step 4 you will have an account you can get back into if you lose your phone. After Step 5 you will have a household position on time and money that was decided calmly rather than during an argument.
The one checklist to do before anything else
Before you read Step 1
- Find out which operating system your computer runs, and whether it is 64-bit. Step 2 shows you exactly where to look on each system.
- Check roughly how much free space is on the drive where programs install. Large online games are measured in tens of gigabytes.
- Find out whether your internet connection has a monthly data allowance, and how much of it is left. A first download can be a meaningful share of a small plan.
- Decide, before anyone is excited, who in the household is allowed to spend money in a game and up to what amount.
- Write down where your computer's password and your main email password are kept. You will need the email account in Step 4.
A worked example to follow through the steps
Hypothetical household — used only to illustrate the steps
Throughout the course we follow an invented household in a Melbourne suburb: two adults, one teenager, one five-year-old laptop running Windows, and a fixed-line connection with a data allowance. Nobody in it is a real person, nobody is named, and it reports no results from any product. It exists so each step has something concrete to work on.
What you can do without spending anything
Everything in this course can be completed for nothing. Checking your hardware uses tools already installed on your computer. Reading a classification marking costs nothing, and so does setting up two-factor authentication.
If you reach the end and decide that online gaming is not for your household, you have lost an hour and gained the ability to answer the question. That is a legitimate outcome, and we would rather you reached it honestly than be talked past it.
Where World of Tanks appears, and why
One product is referred to by name in several steps: World of Tanks, an online multiplayer tank game. We use it because its structure — free to create an account, team-based matches, desktop computers only — matches the category the course teaches, so the general points have somewhere specific to land.
Every statement we make about it comes from what its affiliate programme publishes: a tank action game of team battles between players, with graphics produced by the Core engine, destructible scenery, thirty maps remade in high definition and a new soundtrack, running on Windows, macOS and Linux. Where you want a detail we have not been given, we say so rather than fill the gap.
Visit the World of Tanks websitePaid affiliate link. Multi.kuk.shop s.r.o. is paid a commission if you create and activate an account after following it; your cost is unchanged either way.
Australian organisations worth knowing
Several Australian bodies publish free material that is more authoritative than anything a site like this one could write. The Australian Classification Board classifies computer games sold and distributed in Australia and publishes the markings and consumer advice. The eSafety Commissioner is the national regulator for online safety and publishes guidance for adults and families. The Australian Signals Directorate's Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes advice on securing accounts and devices.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission administers the Australian Consumer Law, Scamwatch publishes reports of scams, and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner regulates privacy. Each step links the ones it uses.
How the course is written and kept current
The five steps were drafted as one piece, in order, by the Multi.kuk.shop s.r.o. editorial team, then cut back until each could be read in a sitting. A general factual claim either links the body that publishes it or is written as guidance. A claim about a product comes only from what that product's affiliate programme states.
The course is reviewed on a fixed schedule and after any change we become aware of in the Australian material it cites. The review date sits in the footer of every page, and About sets out the method in detail.
Short answers to four common questions
Do I have to finish the whole course?
No. The five steps are written in order because each one assumes the one before it, but nothing is tracked and nothing is withheld. Read the step that answers your question today and leave the rest.
Do I need to buy anything to use this course?
No. Every checklist can be completed with the computer you already own and a web browser. Products are described so that you can recognise them, not so that you buy them.
Is this the official site of any game?
No. PureScale Online is published by Multi.kuk.shop s.r.o. and has no connection to any game publisher. Links to a vendor's own website are paid affiliate links and are labelled wherever they appear.
Does the course work on a phone or tablet?
The pages read fine on a phone, but the subject is desktop and laptop gaming on Windows, macOS and Linux. The game used as the worked example runs on those desktop operating systems only.
Begin with Step 1 — What "free to play" actually means, or go straight to all five checklists on one page.