Brief 05 · Beginner course · Australia
Getting into an online multiplayer vehicle game on a desktop computer
This is a five-step course for readers in Australia who have never installed or played an online multiplayer vehicle game — the kind where everyone controls an aircraft, a tank or a ship in a shared match — and who want to know what is involved before they start. It assumes no previous knowledge of PC gaming, graphics settings or game accounts.
Each step takes fifteen to twenty minutes to read, so the whole course is about an hour and a half. Most people do not read it straight through: each step ends in a checklist you can work through at the keyboard, and you can stop after any one of them and still be better off.
How this site is paid for
Step 1 and Step 3 of this course each contain one link to the website of a game called War Thunder. Those are paid affiliate links. If you follow one and create an account on that site, East trading company s.r.o., the publisher of Paleflux, is paid a commission by the affiliate network that operates the link. Nothing is added to your costs, and the commission does not decide what the course says. You can read all five steps, print every checklist and finish the course without following either link — most of the course is about things no game publisher sells you. The full explanation is on our funding page.
The five steps, in order
- Step 1 — What these games actually are, and what an account is for
The shape of the category: shared online matches, a client program on your own machine, and a sign-up that usually ends with an email you have to confirm. - Step 2 — Working out whether your desktop can run one
Where to find your computer's own specifications on Windows, macOS and Linux, and how to read a published requirements table without guessing. - Step 3 — Registering, confirming your email and staying out of trouble
Choosing an address, making a password you do not reuse, turning on two-factor sign-in, and telling a real confirmation email from a fake one. - Step 4 — Installing, and the first session at the controls
Downloading from the publisher rather than a mirror, what a launcher does, finding the tutorial, and setting the controls and graphics so the first hour is not miserable. - Step 5 — Living with it: time, money, classification and household rules
In-game purchases, randomised items, the Australian classification on the game you are looking at, consumer rights here, and how to leave if you want to.
There is also an All checklists page, which gathers the five checklists on one sheet and prints cleanly on white paper.
Who this course is for, and who it is not for
It is written for an adult in Australia who is curious about a game a friend, a partner or a child has mentioned and wants to understand the commitment before installing anything — and for a parent who has been asked for permission and wants to know what is being asked. You need to be able to use a web browser. Nothing else is assumed.
It is not for people who already play these games. It is also not a course about comparing specific titles or deciding which is best — that needs testing we do not do.
The one check to do before anything else
Before you read a single word about a particular game, check what sort of computer you have. Almost everything in this category runs on a desktop or laptop computer — Windows, macOS or Linux — and not on a phone or tablet. The game used as the worked example throughout this course is one of those: the material we were given for it lists Windows, macOS and Linux desktop machines and nothing else.
That single fact rules the course out for a lot of people in about ten seconds, which is a good thing. If there is a desktop or a laptop in the house, Step 2 shows you where to look up what is inside it.
What you will be able to do after each step
After Step 1 you will be able to explain, to someone else, what kind of program this is, where it lives, and why a game asks for an email address at all. After Step 2 you will be able to read your own machine's specifications off the screen and compare them to a published requirements table without having to ask anyone. After Step 3 you will have an account protected by a password you use nowhere else, and you will know how to check that a confirmation email is really from the sender it claims.
After Step 4 you will have installed from the publisher's own site, worked through a tutorial, and adjusted the controls and picture quality to suit your machine. After Step 5 you will know where the money goes, what the Australian Classification Board says about the title, what consumer protections you have here, and how to remove it cleanly.
A worked example: one household, five evenings
The example used in each step is a hypothetical household in a suburb of Adelaide: two adults and one teenager, one five-year-old Windows laptop on the kitchen table, and a fixed-line internet connection. Nobody in it is a real person, none of them is named, and none of them reports how any product performed. They exist only so the steps have something concrete to be about.
One evening per step: work out what the game is, look up what is inside the laptop, make an account with a password nobody has used before, install and sit through the tutorial, then agree the house rules about time and money. Five short evenings is a realistic pace, not a target.
What you can do without spending anything
Every step of this course, and every checklist, costs nothing and asks nothing of you — there is no sign-up here, no newsletter and no account. Checking your computer's specifications costs nothing. Reading a publisher's system requirements page costs nothing. The Australian government resources linked throughout are public and cost nothing to use.
Whether any particular game itself costs money is a question for that game's own website. We do not state a price for any title, because we have not been given one and guessing would be worse than silence.
Where War Thunder appears in this course, and why
War Thunder is an online game. It is used in this course as the concrete example of the category, because the material supplied to us describes a sign-up completed by confirming an email address and then logging in — the sequence Steps 1 and 3 are about. That is the extent of what we have been told about it, and so it is the extent of what we say.
Two links in this course go to its website, and both are paid affiliate links. Paleflux is not operated by, affiliated with or authorised by the company behind it. If you would rather not earn anyone a commission, type its name into a search engine; the course works identically either way.
Official Australian help
- Australian Cyber Security Centre — the federal government's advice service on passwords, multi-factor sign-in and keeping software updated.
- Scamwatch — run by the National Anti-Scam Centre, it describes current scam types and takes reports.
- eSafety Commissioner — Australia's regulator for online safety, including harassment and online interaction between players.
- Australian Classification Board — publishes the classification and consumer advice for games sold or distributed in Australia.
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission — administers the Australian Consumer Law, which covers digital purchases.
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner — the national privacy regulator.
How this course is written and kept current
It is written by the editorial team at East trading company s.r.o. There are no individual authors, because nothing here is a personal account. Statements about a particular product come only from material we have been given; where that material is silent, the course says so. Statements about Australian law, safety practice or classification link to the government body responsible for them, and nothing is presented as a legal threshold without a link to its source. The About page sets out the method in full.
Short answers to five common questions
Do I have to finish the course in order?
No. The order is the order the tasks happen in, which is why it is useful, but each step stands alone. If you already have a machine and an account, start at Step 4.
Is anything saved when I tick a checklist box?
No. The boxes are printed shapes, not form controls. This site has no cookies, no storage, no analytics and no forms, so there is nothing to tick in the first place — print the sheet and use a pen.
Is this an official site for any game?
No. Paleflux is an independent publication. It is not a game publisher, a reseller, a download site or an authorised partner of any brand named here.
Can I do this on a phone or tablet?
You can read the course anywhere. The game used as the example is for desktop and laptop computers running Windows, macOS or Linux, so the practical steps assume one of those.
Will you email me the checklists?
No. We collect no email addresses at all. The All checklists page prints on a single stack of paper, which is the whole delivery mechanism.