Neat Motif

All checklists from the course, on one page

Every checklist from the five steps is repeated below in the order you meet it, together with the short one that comes before the course starts. The page is laid out so that it prints on a few sheets of paper without the menu, the links or this introduction getting in the way.

How to use them

These lists are meant to be worked through at the keyboard, not read. The sensible order is the order they appear in, because each one assumes the previous has been done — the registration list in Step 4 expects you to have chosen an email address in Step 1 and a spending figure in Step 3.

Nothing on this site records your progress. The boxes are printed squares rather than controls, and ticking one on screen is not possible, because remembering a tick would mean storing something about you and we have chosen to store nothing at all. Print the page, or keep it open in a second window and work down it with a pen beside you. If you would rather have the context around a list, each step page carries its own copy at the end.

Not every item will apply to you. A household with nobody under 18 can skip four lines. A desktop computer on an unmetered connection can skip three more. Crossing out a line that does not apply is a legitimate way to finish a checklist, and is more useful than pretending to consider it.

Two of the lists are worth repeating later rather than doing once. The Step 2 list of five numbers should be redone whenever you change computers, and it takes two minutes the second time because you know where to look. The Step 5 monthly routine is designed to be repeated, and the whole of it fits in ten minutes.

If you are using this with a young person, the three lists that benefit most from being done together are the one before you start, Step 3 and Step 4 — because those are where the decisions about email addresses, display names, spending and chat settings are made, and a decision made together tends to survive longer than one imposed. The eSafety Commissioner publishes material for families on gaming that pairs well with those lists.

If you find a line that is unclear or out of date, the publisher's address is in the footer of every page, and the course is reviewed on a fixed schedule with the review date shown there.

Before you start the course

  • Find out which operating system your computer runs, and whether it is 64-bit.
  • Make sure you can read email at an address you control — not shared, not a work address.
  • Check roughly how much free space is on the drive where programs are installed.
  • Find out whether your internet plan has a data allowance, and how much is left this month.
  • If the person playing is under 18, decide who is responsible for any spending on the account.

Checklist for Step 1 — What a game account is

  • Write down, in one sentence each, what the client is and what the account is.
  • Decide which email address the account will use, and confirm you can read that mailbox today.
  • Check that the address is not a work or school one, and not shared with someone who should not be able to reset the account.
  • Find your email provider's junk or spam folder now.
  • Note whether the game is distributed through a store or launcher, and so whether there will be two accounts.
  • Find the download size on the game's own page and compare it with the data allowance left this month.
  • Agree, in a household with someone under 18, who holds the password and who holds the recovery email address.
  • Read one page of the Australian Cyber Security Centre's guidance on passphrases before creating a password.

Checklist for Step 2 — Will your computer run it

  • Write down the operating system and version.
  • Write down whether the system is 64-bit.
  • Write down the processor make, model and generation.
  • Write down the installed memory in gigabytes.
  • Write down the graphics chip, and whether it is integrated or dedicated.
  • Write down the free space on the drive where programs are installed.
  • Find the download size and check the free space is comfortably larger.
  • Check how much of this month's data allowance is left.
  • Compare your five numbers against the publisher's own stated requirements.
  • On a laptop, plan to test the game plugged in, with the vents clear.
  • Confirm the game is published for the operating system you actually have.

Checklist for Step 3 — Classification, terms and spending

  • Search the Australian Classification Board's register for the title, and read the consumer advice as well as the rating.
  • Find the suspension and termination clause in the end-user agreement.
  • Find the clause describing what you have when you buy an item inside the game.
  • Find the clause on changes to the game and to the agreement.
  • Find the governing law clause, and note that Australian consumer protections are not displaced by it.
  • Skim the publisher's privacy policy for what is collected, where it is stored and how to request deletion.
  • Identify what the game sells: cosmetic, convenience, season pass, randomised.
  • If anyone under 18 will play, decide deliberately how randomised paid items are to be handled.
  • Decide a monthly spending figure, including zero, and say it out loud to whoever else is affected.
  • Decide whether a payment method will be attached to the account at all, and whose.
  • Note the questions the publisher does not answer anywhere.

Checklist for Step 4 — Registering and the first launch

  • Open your email in another window before beginning the form.
  • Choose a display name that reveals nothing about who or where you are.
  • Use a long passphrase used on no other site, recorded somewhere you will still have in a year.
  • Answer the date of birth honestly.
  • Read the marketing tick-boxes and untick what you do not want.
  • Tick the agreement box knowing what Step 3 found in it.
  • Hover over the link in the confirmation email and check it points at the publisher's own domain.
  • Confirm the email address before doing anything else.
  • If nothing arrives, work through the six-point list in Step 4 rather than registering again.
  • Switch on two-factor authentication if offered, and save the recovery codes.
  • Install only from the publisher's own site or the official store it names.
  • Decline any extra software offered during installation.
  • Spend ten minutes in settings: sound, display, controls, privacy and chat, account, payment.
  • Confirm no payment method is attached unless you decided one should be.
  • Play for twenty minutes and note how the machine and connection behave.

Checklist for Step 5 — Updates, spending and help

  • Set a monthly moment to start the client when the connection is free.
  • Check free space on the game's drive each month; clear something if it is under about ten per cent.
  • Check the data used against your plan's allowance.
  • Look at the account's purchase history once a month, with whoever else is affected.
  • Keep operating system and graphics driver updates installed.
  • Confirm two-factor authentication is still on and the recovery email still readable.
  • If performance drops, work through the five ordinary causes first.
  • Keep the payment method off the account, or use prepaid credit bought deliberately.
  • Keep receipt emails and a note of what a store page said at the time of purchase.
  • Learn where muting, blocking and reporting live inside the game before you need them.
  • Save the Australian contacts — Scamwatch, ACCC, eSafety, OAIC, Classification Board, ACSC.
  • Know how to uninstall the client, how to close the account and how to request deletion of personal information.