All checklists
Every checklist from the course, in order, on one page. It is laid out to print on ordinary white A4 without the menus or the colours, so you can take it to the computer, or to the kitchen table, and work through it with a pen.
0.1 How to use them
The checklists are the course in compressed form. Each one restates the practical outcome of its step as a list of things you can confirm for yourself, so if you have read the step, the list is a reminder; if you have not, it is a set of instructions that mostly makes sense on its own.
Work through them in order the first time. The order is not arbitrary: the five numbers you record in the Step 2 list are used again in the Step 4 list, and the four answers from the Step 3 list are what make Step 5's decisions straightforward rather than vague. Jumping straight to Step 4 is possible, but you will find yourself going back.
After the first time, the lists have different lives. The opening check and the Step 2 list are worth repeating whenever you change computers or consider a different game — they are about your machine, not about any particular title. The Step 3 list applies afresh to each new vendor. The Step 4 list is used once per installation. The Step 5 list is the one to come back to every few months, because spending habits and account security both drift quietly and neither sends you a reminder.
Nothing here is recorded. There are no tick boxes that save, no progress bar, no account and no cookie — the printed squares are squares drawn with a line, and the page will look exactly the same when you return to it. That is a deliberate choice rather than an omission: saving your answers would mean storing something about you, and this site stores nothing. If you want a record, the paper copy is the record.
One last note on honesty. Several items ask you to confirm something about a vendor — that you found their requirements page, their terms, their support contact. If you cannot find one of those things, the correct action is to leave the box empty rather than to assume it exists somewhere. An empty box is information too, and in that particular case it is quite useful information about the vendor.
0.2 The opening check, before anything else
- I know which operating system this computer runs, and its version number.
- I know roughly how much free storage space the computer has left.
- I know which email address I would use for a game account, and I can open that mailbox myself.
- I am prepared to use a password on that account that I use nowhere else.
- This computer is mine to install software on, and is not managed by an employer or a school.
0.3 Step 1 — What you are signing up for
- I can say in one sentence what a client is and where it is stored.
- I can say in one sentence what an account is and who holds it.
- I know that money spent is attached to the account, not to the computer.
- I know that an online game's client is updated regularly and that updates use data.
- I have identified which of the three payment shapes the game I am considering uses, from the vendor's own pages.
- I have decided which email address the account will use, and it is one I can open myself.
- That email address is not shared with someone who should not be able to reset the account password.
- I understand that the one email to expect is the activation message, and that others claiming to be about the account deserve suspicion.
0.4 Step 2 — Can your computer run it?
- I have written down my operating system and its version number.
- I have written down my processor name and model number.
- I have written down my installed memory in gigabytes.
- I have written down my graphics entry, whether a separate card or part of the processor.
- I have written down the free space remaining on the drive the game would install to.
- I have found the vendor's own published requirements page and confirmed my operating system is on it.
- I have compared memory and storage line by line and know whether mine are above the figures given.
- I have formed a verdict: above recommended, between the lists, below minimum, or unsupported.
- I have checked that the download size fits comfortably within any data allowance on my connection.
- I have confirmed that the computer is mine to install software on, and not managed by an employer or a school.
0.5 Step 3 — Reading the terms
- I have found the vendor's own site and confirmed the domain in the address bar.
- I have opened the terms of service and noted the date it was last updated.
- I have written down the minimum age stated in the terms.
- I have written down what the terms say about transferring or selling the account.
- I have written down what can cause a suspension, in my own words.
- I have noted the name of the company I would be contracting with.
- I can answer, from the privacy notice: what is collected, what for, who with, and how to request a copy.
- I have looked the title up in the Classification Board's database rather than relying on a shop listing.
- I have read the vendor's refund page and know their stated window.
- I have saved the vendor's support contact where I can find it later.
- If a child will play, I have read the eSafety Commissioner's guidance for parents and carers.
0.6 Step 4 — Installing and the first login
- I obtained the file from the vendor's own site or a platform the vendor lists the game on.
- I chose the file for my operating system, not another one.
- The downloaded file's name plainly relates to the game or the vendor.
- I read the name shown in the system's permission prompt before allowing it.
- The space the installer asked for is less than the free space I recorded in Step 2.
- I declined every optional extra program offered during the installation.
- I was not asked for my email password, bank details or remote access, and did not disable security software.
- I noted where the game installed and the date, so I can remove it cleanly later.
- The account uses an email address I control and a password used nowhere else.
- I activated the account from the message in my own mailbox.
- I turned on two-factor authentication if the vendor offers it, and stored the recovery codes away from the computer.
- I set picture quality, update behaviour and chat settings before my first game.
- I declined to store a payment card for now.
0.7 Step 5 — Spending and keeping the account
- I have written down a monthly figure in Australian dollars, or the word "nothing", with today's date.
- I can name the four forms in-game spending takes and recognise which one I am being offered.
- I understand that intermediate currencies separate paying from spending, and I measure my figure in dollars.
- I have looked up the title's current classification on the Classification Board's own site.
- If a child uses the account, randomised purchases are not available to them unsupervised.
- No payment card is stored in the account, or a purchase password is in place if one is.
- I check the bank statement, not the in-game purchase history, as my record.
- The account password is used in no other place.
- I open the vendor's site by typing the address, not by following links in messages.
- The login has not been shared with anyone.
- The email address on the account is one I still use and still control.
- The creation date, recovery codes and any purchase reference are stored away from the computer.
- I know that uninstalling the game does not close the account, and I know where to ask if I want it closed.