A five-step course for people in Australia who have never installed an online PC game
Each step takes about ten minutes to read, so the whole course is a little under an hour in one sitting. You do not have to do it that way. Each step finishes with a checklist you can work through on your own before you move to the next.
How this site is paid for
Bare Canvas is published by Mimo-mind s.r.o. Some links in this course go to the World of Warships website, and those links are paid: if you follow one and create and activate an account there, we are paid a commission by the affiliate network that operates the link. The reader pays nothing extra, and the commission plays no part in deciding what the five steps say or which products get a mention. You can finish every step, tick every box and never follow one of those links. Our funding page sets the arrangement out in full.
The five steps
- Step 1 — What “free to play” actually means
The vocabulary, the business model behind most online PC games, and the difference between the parts that cost nothing and the parts that cost money. - Step 2 — Working out whether your computer can run it
How to find out what is inside your machine, how to read a published requirements list, and what to do when your computer sits between the two columns. - Step 3 — Reading the account terms before you agree to them
What a game account is, which clauses are worth your attention, and how your Australian consumer rights sit alongside a publisher's terms of service. - Step 4 — Installing it and setting up your first session
Getting the installer from a source you trust, what a launcher does, and the handful of settings worth changing before you play. - Step 5 — Spending, classification and staying in control
In-game currencies, randomised items, classification ratings, household rules and how to stop a hobby turning into an unplanned expense.
Every checklist in the course is also gathered on one page: all five checklists, in printable form.
Who this course is for, and who it is not for
This is written for an adult in Australia who has used a computer for years for work, email and video, and has simply never installed a game on it. Perhaps someone in the house has started playing one and you would like to understand it. Perhaps you want to try one and the unfamiliar words are off-putting.
It assumes nothing. Words are defined the first time they appear, including the ones that get used casually everywhere else, such as launcher, client, patch and free to play.
It is not for you if you already play PC games regularly: you will find the pace slow and the ground familiar. It is also not a course about any one title, and not professional advice of any kind.
What you will be able to do by the end
After Step 1 you will be able to read a game's own description of itself and work out how it expects to make money from you. After Step 2 you will know what is inside your computer and whether a published requirements list is asking for more than you have. After Step 3 you will be able to skim a terms-of-service document and find the three or four clauses that actually matter to a player.
After Step 4 you will know how to get software onto your machine from a source you have a reason to trust. After Step 5 you will have a written household position on spending.
The one checklist to do before anything else
Before you read Step 1
- Decide which computer this is about, and make sure it runs Windows or macOS. Linux machines are outside the scope of this course and of the links on it.
- Find out whether you have an administrator account on that computer, or whether someone else does.
- Check whether your internet connection has a monthly data allowance, and roughly how much of it is spare.
- Agree with anyone else who uses the computer that you are going to install something on it.
- Put aside about an hour in total, split however you like across five sittings.
A worked example you can follow through the course
A hypothetical household
To keep the steps concrete, the course follows one invented household: two adults in a rented flat with one five-year-old desktop computer running Windows, a monthly broadband plan with a data allowance, and a teenager who visits on weekends. Nobody in it is a real person, nothing in it is a report of anyone's results, and no product outcome is claimed for them. They exist so that each step has a worked example rather than only a rule.
What you can do without spending anything
Most of this course costs nothing to follow. Finding out what is inside your computer uses tools already installed on it. Reading a publisher's terms costs nothing, and so does checking a classification rating on the Australian Classification Board's database. Many online PC games can be installed and played without payment, which is what the phrase “free to play” refers to; Step 1 explains where the money comes from instead.
Where World of Warships appears, and why
World of Warships is mentioned in this course because Mimo-mind s.r.o. has a commercial relationship with the affiliate programme behind it, and we would rather say that plainly than bury it. It appears as an example of what a sign-up flow in this category looks like, and the links to it are paid links. Where we describe what the product does, we restrict ourselves to what the vendor states; where the vendor has not stated something, we say so instead of filling the gap. The affiliate terms cover desktop computers running Windows or macOS only, not Linux.
Official Australian sources used in the steps
Several steps point you at Australian government bodies. The Australian Classification Board publishes the classification ratings that apply to games sold and distributed here. Scamwatch, run by the National Anti-Scam Centre, publishes material about scams reported in Australia. The Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes general security guidance for individuals and families. The eSafety Commissioner deals with online safety, including in games. The ACCC administers the Australian Consumer Law, and the OAIC handles privacy.
How this course is written and kept current
The five steps are written by the Mimo-mind s.r.o. editorial team and sequenced deliberately: each step assumes the one before it and nothing else. General factual statements either link to the body that published them or are framed as guidance. The review date in the footer is updated when something the course relies on changes. The About page describes the method in more detail.
Short questions, short answers
Do I need to create an account on this site?
No. There is no sign-up anywhere on Bare Canvas, no newsletter, and no form of any kind. The checklists are printed lists; they do not remember what you have ticked, because nothing is stored.
Do the checklists save my progress?
No. Print them or keep the page open. The site sets no cookies and uses no browser storage.
Is this an official site for any game?
No. Bare Canvas is an independent publication by Mimo-mind s.r.o. It is not a vendor, a reseller, a partner or an authorised source for any brand mentioned in it.