A five-step workbook for adults in Australia opening their first online PC game account
Read end to end, the five steps take about an hour and a quarter at an unhurried pace. Each step stands on its own in roughly fifteen minutes, so you can take one a night across a week and lose nothing.
Lucid Margin carries paid affiliate links. When a reader opens the World of Tanks website through one of our marked links and goes on to create and activate an account there, the publisher of this site is paid a commission by the affiliate network that operates the link. You pay no more than any other visitor, and no page here needs you to click anything to be useful. Read the full funding explanation.
The five steps
- Step 1 — What a free-to-play online PC game actually involves
The pieces you are agreeing to: a client program, an account, other people in the match, and a shop. - Step 2 — Working out whether your computer is up to it
Finding your own specifications and comparing them to a published requirement without guessing. - Step 3 — Reading the account terms, privacy notice and age rules first
The four things worth finding in a sign-up page before you type an email address into it. - Step 4 — Installing, the first launch and a calm first session
Where files go, what a first run asks for, and how to tell whether it is working properly. - Step 5 — Living with it: time, money and randomised items
Setting a budget, understanding loot-box style purchases, and keeping updates manageable.
Every step finishes with a checklist you can work through on paper, and all five are gathered on the All checklists page, which prints cleanly on A4.
Who this course is for, and who it is not for
This workbook was written for an adult in Australia trying an online multiplayer game on a computer for the first time: someone whose household already plays and would rather understand the thing than be shown it, a parent asked to approve an install who wants to read the terms first, or someone returning to computers after fifteen years away.
It is not for people who already play, and it is not a buyer's guide: no page ranks or scores products, because the publisher has a commercial relationship with one of the titles mentioned and a ranking written under that arrangement would not be worth your trust.
One restriction shapes every step: personal computers only, running Windows, macOS or Linux. Phones, tablets and consoles are left out deliberately, because their storage, input, parental controls and payment rules differ enough that advice written for one misleads on the other.
What you will be able to do after each step
Each step is written towards a specific ability rather than a word count. After Step 1 you will be able to say, in your own words, what you are agreeing to when you install an online game and which parts of it are optional. After Step 2 you will be able to open your own computer's system information, write down five numbers, and compare them with a published requirement without having to ask anyone.
After Step 3 you will be able to find four specific things in a sign-up page before entering an email address. After Step 4 you will be able to install a program, work out where it put its files, and tell a game running badly from a connection running badly. After Step 5 you will have a written monthly limit, a clear idea of what a randomised in-game purchase is, and an update routine that does not interrupt an evening.
The one checklist to do before anything else
Before you install anything at all
- Write down which computer you intend to use, and whether it runs Windows, macOS or Linux.
- Check that you are the person entitled to install software on it — your own machine, or one where you have permission.
- Decide, in advance, a monthly amount you are willing to spend on this hobby. Zero is a complete answer.
- Set aside roughly thirty gigabytes of free disk space, on the understanding that you will confirm the real figure in Step 2.
- Note whether the computer is on a connection with a monthly data allowance, and how much of it is left.
- If anyone under 18 will use the account, read Step 3 before, not after, the sign-up page.
What you can do without spending anything
A great deal of this hobby costs nothing. Checking your computer's specifications takes four minutes. Reading a game's terms, privacy notice and refund policy is free, as is looking up a title's classification in the Australian Classification Board's database at classification.gov.au, turning off in-game chat, and setting a spending limit with your payment provider rather than in the game.
Titles described as free to play are free to install and free to enter; the money arrives later through optional purchases, which is the subject of Step 5. It is entirely possible to read all five steps, install nothing, and still finish with a clearer idea of what you would be signing up for.
A worked example: one hypothetical household
An invented household, used only to show the steps in sequence
Picture a household in a regional Australian town: one adult who last used a computer for much besides email in about 2010, and a six-year-old study laptop. Nobody here is a real person and no outcome describes any product's performance.
In Step 1 they decide the laptop, not the family tablet, is the machine in question. In Step 2 they write down its processor, memory, graphics hardware, free disk space and operating system version. In Step 3 they find the privacy notice, the minimum age, the refund terms and the recovery method on a sign-up page before typing anything into it. In Step 4 they install during the day, because the connection has a monthly allowance. In Step 5 they write "$0 per month, reviewed at Christmas" on the same sheet. Four evenings, and no decision they could not undo.
Where World of Tanks appears in this course, and why
World of Tanks is named in this workbook as an example of the kind of title the five steps apply to, and the links to it are paid affiliate links. The publisher is paid when a reader creates and activates an account after following one, is not paid for anything you read, and is not paid differently depending on what the steps say.
What the course does not do is describe the inside of that game. The vendor's own site is where its system requirements, regional availability, prices and account rules live, and those change; restating them here would create a second, slowly rotting copy. So Step 2 teaches you to read a requirements table rather than reproducing one. Visit the World of Tanks website if you want to check those details at the source.Paid affiliate link. The publisher receives a commission if you create and activate an account after following it. Your price is unaffected and the course does not depend on it.
Official Australian help
Where a step touches something a government body already publishes on, it links to that body rather than paraphrasing it. The Australian Classification Board at classification.gov.au holds the national classification database for games. The Australian Cyber Security Centre at cyber.gov.au publishes guidance on account security. Scamwatch at scamwatch.gov.au, run by the National Anti-Scam Centre, describes current scams. The eSafety Commissioner at esafety.gov.au covers online safety, including games and young people. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au oversees privacy law, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission at accc.gov.au administers the Australian Consumer Law.
How this workbook is written and kept current
It is written by the editorial team at JustOne s.r.o. and carries no individual byline, because no individual claim is being made. Each step relies on three kinds of source: the Australian bodies listed above, the vendor's own documentation for anything product-specific, and plain description of how desktop operating systems work. Where none covers a question, the step says so. The About page sets out the method in full; the Contact page is a plain email address.
Short questions and answers
Do I have to read the five steps in order?
You do not have to, but the workbook was built assuming you will. Each step takes for granted the vocabulary defined in the step before it, so reading out of order means meeting terms that have not been explained yet.
Is there anything to sign up for?
No. There is no account, no email field, no newsletter and nothing that records how far you have read. The checklists are printed lists; they do not remember which boxes you ticked, because the site stores nothing in your browser.
Will this course work for a phone or a console?
It is written for a desktop or laptop computer running Windows, macOS or Linux. Phones, tablets and consoles have different storage, input and account rules, and the checks in Step 2 and Step 4 do not transfer to them.
Does the course cost anything?
No. Every page, including the printable checklists, is free to read and free to print. The publisher is paid by affiliate commission on sign-ups made through the links that are marked as affiliate links, and you can finish the workbook without using any of them.