All checklists from the five steps
Every checklist in the course, gathered in order, on one page that prints without the menu, the links or the funding notices.
How to use them
These checklists are the working part of the course. The step pages explain why each line is there; this page is what you keep beside the computer while you do it. If you have not read the steps, the lines will still make sense, but a few of them will look arbitrary, and the reason is always one paragraph away on the step page they came from.
Work through them in order. The sequence is not decorative: Step 2 rules out games your computer cannot run, so doing it before Step 3 saves you from reading classification information about something you were never going to play. Step 4 creates an account, so everything that should be decided before an account exists sits in the three steps before it.
Nothing here is stored. These are printed boxes, not controls — ticking one changes nothing and is not remembered when you reload the page, because this site keeps no cookies and no browser storage of any kind. If you want the state of your work preserved, print the page and use a pen, or copy the lines into whatever you normally use for lists.
A line you cannot complete is information, not failure. "The vendor does not publish this" and "no Australian classification found" are both useful findings, and both belong written down beside the line rather than left blank. A household that has recorded three unanswered questions about a game knows considerably more than one that has recorded nothing.
The first four checklists are done once, for each game you are considering. The fifth is different: it is the one you come back to. Its lines about spending, drive space and account recovery are dated deliberately — one month, three months, six months — because those are the points at which something has usually drifted. Printing the fifth checklist on its own and putting it somewhere visible works better for most households than remembering to open a web page.
Finally, these lines are general guidance written for online PC games as a category, not instructions for any particular product. Where a line tells you to check something on a vendor's own pages, the vendor's pages are the authority and this page is only the reminder. Where a line refers to an Australian body — the Classification Board, the ACCC, the eSafety Commissioner, the ACSC, Scamwatch, the OAIC — that body's own site is linked from the step the line came from.
Before you begin
From the course overview
- Find out which operating system your computer runs, and whether it is 64-bit.
- Check roughly how much free space is on the drive where programs install.
- Find out whether your internet connection has a monthly data allowance, and how much of it is left.
- 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.
Step 1 — What "free to play" actually means
Business model
- Pick one free game you are curious about and open its own website, not a third-party page about it.
- Find the page that describes what can be bought.
- Write down which of the four models it uses: cosmetic sales, progression acceleration, subscription or pass, or randomised items.
- Write down whether purchases are priced in dollars or in a premium currency, and what the smallest real-money top-up costs in AUD.
- Answer in writing: if nobody in this household ever spends anything, what is the game like?
- If you cannot answer that from the vendor's own pages, record that you could not.
- Note whether a subscription or season pass is offered, and when a pass expires.
- Decide the maximum amount per month anyone in the household may spend in this game.
Step 2 — Will it run on your computer?
Your six figures, then the comparison
- Write down your operating system and its version.
- Write down whether it is 64-bit.
- Write down the processor line, in full, with its model number.
- Write down the installed memory in gigabytes.
- Write down the graphics hardware, and whether it is integrated or dedicated. If two are listed, write down both.
- Write down free space in gigabytes on the drive where programs install.
- Compare against the vendor's requirements page in order: operating system, architecture, storage, memory, graphics, processor.
- Check your remaining monthly data allowance before downloading anything large.
- Note which server region option is closest to Australia.
- Keep the six figures somewhere you can find them again.
Step 3 — Classification ratings and in-game spending
Content, then commerce
- Find the game's Australian classification marking, on the vendor's site or at classification.gov.au.
- Write down the consumer advice phrase, not just the marking.
- Read what that category means on classification.gov.au rather than assuming from the letter.
- If no Australian classification exists for the title, record that and judge the content yourself.
- Write down what the store sells: named items, premium currency, progress boosts, randomised containers, or a combination.
- Convert the smallest premium-currency top-up into AUD and write that figure down.
- Find the clause in the vendor's terms describing what you own after a purchase.
- Find the refund policy, and note that Australian Consumer Law guarantees sit behind it.
- If randomised items are sold, note whether odds are published and whether the items can also be earned by playing.
- Agree a household rule on who may spend and up to what monthly amount in AUD.
- Decide whether any payment method will be stored against the account.
Step 4 — Making and securing an account
Sign-up, security, first launch
- Reach the sign-up page by typing the vendor's address or using your own bookmark.
- Choose an email address you control, will keep, and know the password to.
- Set a long password used nowhere else, and record it safely.
- Choose a display name that does not reveal your real name, location, school or workplace.
- Open the verification email and complete verification.
- Turn on two-factor authentication, preferring an authenticator application if offered.
- Save the recovery codes somewhere that is not the phone holding the authenticator.
- Install the client from the vendor's own site and let the first update finish.
- Set the server region to the option nearest Australia.
- Check display settings, then sound input and output.
- Find the mute and report controls and note where they are.
- Open the account privacy settings and decide who may message you and see your profile.
- Close the game, log in again from scratch, and confirm password and second factor both work.
- Confirm no payment method is stored unless your Step 3 rule says otherwise.
Step 5 — Living with an online game
The one to revisit — print this page on its own
- Agree an end time rather than a duration, and say it out loud before play starts.
- Decide which rhythm you are playing for: matches, daily objectives, weekly objectives or a season.
- Keep a single written record of money spent in AUD.
- Convert every premium-currency price to dollars before buying.
- Wait a day before any purchase above your agreed single-purchase limit.
- Keep receipt emails for anything bought.
- Find mute, block and report in the first week.
- Report rule-breaking behaviour even when muting has already fixed it for you.
- Check text chat and voice chat settings separately.
- Read the vendor's privacy policy once, noting where data is stored and what deletion involves.
- Review account privacy settings after the first fortnight.
- At one month, compare actual spending against the household rule.
- At three months, check free space on the drive again.
- At six months, log in from a cold start and confirm the recovery codes are still findable.
- Cancel any subscription where it was started, and keep the confirmation.
- If you stop playing, choose deliberately between a dormant account and deletion.