All checklists
Every checklist from the five steps, gathered here in one document. Each list also appears at the end of the step it belongs to, with the explanation that makes it make sense.
How to use these
They are designed for paper. The printed version drops the menu, the colours and this introduction's furniture, and gives you six boxed lists on plain white, which is why there is a print button rather than a download. Nothing is saved: the boxes are printed shapes, not controls, and this site stores nothing in your browser between visits. If you tick a box on screen, you have ticked your screen.
The order matters more than the completeness. Checklist 0 comes before any decision at all; Checklist 1 is about understanding the arrangement; Checklist 2 is about your hardware; Checklist 3 is about your account; Checklist 4 is about money; and Checklist 5 is about the first session and the first month. You can do them over an afternoon or across a few weeks. Nothing expires and nothing is waiting for you.
Most items are a single observable action: write something down, open a settings panel, look something up on an official site. Where an item asks you to decide rather than to check — a monthly spending figure, a finishing time — write the answer next to it. An unwritten decision tends not to survive contact with a limited-time offer.
Several items send you to an Australian government site rather than giving you an answer here. That is deliberate. Classification decisions, scam patterns, consumer guarantees and security advice all change, and the official page is always the current one, while a copy on a page like this one ages quietly. The relevant sites are the Australian Classification Board, Scamwatch, the Australian Cyber Security Centre, the eSafety Commissioner, the ACCC and the OAIC.
If you are working through this with somebody else in the household — which is the right way to do Checklist 4 — print two copies and compare answers at the end. The disagreements are the useful part.
None of these lists requires a purchase, and finishing them is not a prerequisite for anything. They are a way of making a handful of small decisions on purpose instead of by default.
Checklist 0 — before you start
From the course home page. About ten minutes.
- Write down which operating system your computer runs, and whether it is 32-bit or 64-bit.
- Decide now, in dollars, the most you are willing to spend on any game in a month. Nil is allowed.
- Decide which email address you will use for game accounts, and make sure it is not the one your bank uses.
- Check how much free space is on the drive the game would install to.
- If anyone under eighteen will use the account, read Step 4 before Step 1.
Checklist 1 — understanding the deal
From Step 1.
- Say out loud, in one sentence, where a free-to-play game's revenue comes from.
- Name the four categories of in-game purchase without looking them up.
- Decide which of those categories you would consider buying, and which you rule out now.
- Write down, in Australian dollars, the most you would spend on one game in a month.
- Find the privacy policy and terms of service of any game you are considering, and confirm they exist and are readable.
- Check whether the game needs a permanent internet connection to play at all.
- Write down how many hours a week you are willing to give it.
- Read the ACCC page on consumer guarantees once.
Checklist 2 — your machine, on paper
From Step 2. Keep this one; it is reusable for every future game.
- Write down your operating system and its version, exactly as the settings panel states it.
- Confirm the system is 64-bit.
- Write down the full processor model, numbers included.
- Write down the installed memory in gigabytes.
- Write down the graphics hardware name, and its dedicated memory if it has any.
- Write down free space on the install drive, and check it is at least half again the stated requirement.
- Find the requirements list on the vendor's own site, not on a third-party page.
- Compare your facts against the minimum column, then the recommended column.
- If your operating system is not named on the list, stop.
- Check the download size against your internet plan's remaining allowance.
- Note whether the game offers an Oceania or Australian server region.
Checklist 3 — a sign-up you will not regret
From Step 3.
- Create or nominate an email address used only for games.
- Write down which address you used, on paper, with the service name beside it.
- Build a passphrase of several unrelated words, used on no other service.
- Read the current passphrase guidance at cyber.gov.au once.
- Turn on two-factor authentication if the service offers it.
- Write any recovery codes on paper and store them away from the computer.
- Before clicking a link in a confirmation email, hover over it and read the destination.
- Prefer typing the company's address yourself whenever in doubt.
- In the privacy policy, find what is collected, who it is shared with, and how to delete the account.
- Decide whether a payment method will be stored on the account.
- If a young person will use the account, set it up together.
- Bookmark scamwatch.gov.au.
Checklist 4 — before any money moves
From Step 4. Do this one with the household.
- Look the title up on classification.gov.au and read the classification and the consumer advice.
- Note the date of the classification decision.
- Write the household spending rule down, in dollars per month.
- Decide whether randomised items are bought at all. With children in the house, the answer is no.
- Find out what the in-game currency is called and what one dollar buys of it.
- Practise converting an in-game price to Australian dollars on something you will not buy.
- Decide whether a payment method is stored on the account.
- Turn on bank notifications for card purchases if available.
- Start a notebook line for every purchase: date, item, amount in dollars.
- Turn on platform or operating-system purchase approval for any young person's account.
- Read the ACCC's consumer guarantees material once, before you need it.
- Agree who is asked before any purchase over the agreed amount.
Checklist 5 — the first session and the first month
From Step 5.
- Start the download when you do not need the connection for anything else.
- Turn voice chat off before the first match.
- Restrict text chat and direct messages to friends, or off, for the first session.
- Set profile visibility to the most private option available.
- Turn the game audio down before launching.
- Choose the nearest server region, and Oceania if it is offered.
- If you are near the minimum requirements, start at low detail.
- Find the mute, block and report controls before you need them.
- Choose a display name that is not your real name and gives away no location.
- Decide your finish time before you start.
- Complete the tutorial before playing against other people.
- Stand up and look away from the screen at least once an hour.
- After a month, read your notebook and decide deliberately whether to continue.
- If you stop: uninstall, deal with the launcher, consider deleting the account.