Brief 05 · All sheetsFive checklists
All checklists, on one sheet
Every checklist from the five steps, in course order. The page is laid out to print on white A4 without the menu, the links or the background, so you can keep it beside the keyboard and work down it with a pen.
How to use these
The boxes on this page are drawn shapes, not controls. Nothing you do here is recorded: this site has no cookies, no stored data and no account, so a tick made on the screen would be forgotten the moment you left. Printing is the point. If you would rather not print, copying the lines into a notebook works just as well and takes about five minutes.
Work in order the first time. The sequence is not arbitrary — Checklist 2 saves you from downloading a client your machine cannot run, and Checklist 3 saves you from making an account you cannot recover. Doing them out of order usually means doing one of them twice.
Do not treat a half-ticked sheet as a failure. Several lines ask you to find and read something on a publisher's own site, and publishers move their pages around. If a line cannot be completed because the information does not exist, that is a finding about the product rather than about you, and it is worth writing in the margin. A game whose system requirements or privacy policy cannot be located on its own domain has told you something.
Two lines deserve a note. The line in Checklist 3 about recovery codes is the one people skip and later regret, because the recovery codes are the only way back into an account protected by a second factor if the phone is lost. And the line in Checklist 5 about working out a purchase in Australian dollars is the one that quietly saves the most money, because in-game currencies are sold in bundles designed to leave an awkward balance behind.
The sheets are reusable. Nothing on them is specific to one title: they work for the next game in this category, and most of Checklist 3 works for any online account at all. If you are helping someone else set up — a parent, a teenager, a friend who is less comfortable with computers — print two copies and work through them together rather than doing it for them. The person who follows the steps is the person who remembers them.
Each checklist also links back to the step it came from, in case a line needs the explanation behind it.
Checklist 1 · What these games are
From Step 1
- I can describe, out loud, what the client on my computer does and what the publisher's server does.
- I know that the match is shared with other people in real time, and that an internet connection is required to play at all.
- I have confirmed that the computer in the house runs Windows, macOS or Linux — not that it is fast enough, only that it is the right kind of machine.
- I understand that an account will be required, and that it needs a login name, a password and an email address.
- I have decided which email address I would use, and I am confident I will still have access to it in a year.
- I know that a confirmation message will arrive in that inbox and that the account is not finished until I act on it.
- I have looked at the publisher's own website for the game I am considering, rather than relying only on what anyone else says about it.
- I have found the publisher's privacy policy on their site, even if I have not read all of it yet.
- I accept that nothing in this step required me to install, buy or register anything.
Checklist 2 · Your machine
From Step 2
- I have written down my operating system and its version number.
- I have written down the full model name of my processor, not just the brand.
- I have written down my installed memory in gigabytes.
- I have written down the name of my graphics chip, and I know whether it is integrated or a separate card.
- I have written down the free space, in gigabytes, on the drive I would install to.
- I have opened the publisher's own system requirements page for the game I am considering.
- I have compared each of my five numbers against both the minimum and the recommended column.
- I have checked that my operating system is actually listed as supported, rather than assuming it.
- I have checked whether the publisher states which server regions they run, and how far away the nearest one is.
- I have checked that my operating system has its current updates installed.
- I have decided, in one word, whether to proceed — and I have not bought any hardware to make the answer come out differently.
Checklist 3 · Account and email
From Step 3
- I chose an email address I expect to control in three years, and it is not a work or school address.
- My email account itself has a long, unique password and a second factor switched on.
- I created the game account password at the moment of registering, and it is used on no other account.
- The password is recorded in a password manager or written in a notebook kept at home — not in a file or an email.
- I reached the registration page by typing the publisher's address myself.
- I checked the address in the browser bar and that the connection was secure before typing anything.
- I gave only the information marked as required.
- My display name does not reveal my full name, my school, my workplace or my suburb.
- I read the terms at least as far as the sections on account termination and refunds.
- I checked the sender domain of the confirmation message rather than the display name.
- I checked where the confirmation link pointed before following it.
- I confirmed the address and then signed in once to check the account works.
- I turned on two-factor sign-in for the game account and stored the recovery codes somewhere other than my phone.
Checklist 4 · Install and first session
From Step 4
- I took the installer from the publisher's own site or a platform store they name there.
- I scrolled past any advertisement at the top of the search results to the real domain.
- I declined any extra software the installer offered to add.
- I checked the full download size against my free space and, if relevant, my monthly data allowance.
- I let the launcher finish updating before expecting to play.
- I opened the graphics settings before the first match and chose a lower preset than the one suggested.
- I turned on the frame-rate counter so I can tell whether a change helped.
- I looked at the accessibility options and turned off anything uncomfortable, such as motion blur or camera shake.
- I set the privacy and chat options, including whether voice chat is on and who can message me.
- I read the key bindings page and learned five keys.
- I completed the tutorial or training mission rather than skipping it.
- I know where the mute and report functions are before I need them.
- I have an ordered plan for what to lower first if the game runs poorly.
Checklist 5 · Living with it
From Step 5
- I know which of the three things this game's shop sells: looks, time, or content.
- I have worked out what one typical purchase costs in Australian dollars, rather than in the game's own currency.
- I have checked whether the game sells randomised items, and decided in advance how I will treat them.
- No payment method is saved on an account used by a young person, and spending controls are switched on.
- I have looked up the title in the Australian Classification Board's database and read the consumer advice, not only the rating.
- I know that a seller's refund policy does not override the consumer guarantees in Australian law.
- I keep receipts and written correspondence about anything I have paid for.
- I have decided a session length, and I know which events are designed to extend it.
- Our household has agreed when it is played, who pays, who can contact whom, and what happens if something goes wrong.
- I know where the mute, block and report functions are, and where to report serious abuse outside the game.
- I have read the publisher's privacy policy far enough to know what they keep and for how long.
- I know how to cancel any subscription, remove payment details, uninstall the client and, if I choose, close the account.