A five-step course for Australians opening their first online war game on a desktop computer

This course is written for a reader who has heard about large multiplayer games set in the Second World War, has a Windows, Mac or Linux desktop or laptop in the house, and has never signed up for one. It explains, in order, what such a game asks of you, how to tell whether your computer can run it, how to make an account without creating a mess in your inbox, what the first session looks like, and how classification, spending and time fit into the picture afterwards.

Reading all five steps end to end takes about an hour. Most people do not read it that way: each step stands on its own, ends in a checklist you can print, and can be left for a week before you come back to the next one.

The five steps

1. Step 1 — What an online war game asks of you before you play. Account, email address, disk space, bandwidth, time and the places money can enter.
2. Step 2 — Working out whether your computer can run it. How to read your own machine's specifications on Windows, macOS and Linux, and how to compare them with a game's stated requirements.
3. Step 3 — Registering and confirming an email address. 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.
4. Step 4 — The first session: installing, launching and settings. A patient order of operations for the download, the first launch, the controls and the settings that decide whether the game feels playable.
5. Step 5 — Classification, spending and habits that last. What the Australian Classification Board does, how in-game purchases work, what to do about unwanted contact, and how to keep the account tidy.

Who this course is for, and who it is not for

It is for an adult in Australia who is curious about a genre they have never touched, or a parent whose household has just acquired one and would like to understand what is involved. It assumes no knowledge at all: terms are explained the first time they appear, and nothing earlier in a step depends on anything you were supposed to know already.

It is not for someone who already plays this kind of game and wants tactics, loadouts or patch notes. There is nothing here about how to win a match. It is also not a buying guide for computer hardware — Step 2 shows you how to read the machine you already own, not how to choose a new one.

Everything described here concerns desktop computers: Windows, macOS and Linux machines with a keyboard and a mouse. Phones, tablets and games consoles work differently and are outside what this course covers, so if the household's only device is a phone, this is not the right material for you.

What you will be able to do after each step

Each step has one practical outcome, and the checklist at its foot is how you confirm you reached it.

• After Step 1 you can state, in plain words, what a given game wants from you before it will let you play, and where the costs sit.
• After Step 2 you can read your own computer's processor, memory, graphics and free disk space off the screen, and compare those four numbers with any published requirement.
• After Step 3 you have an email address set aside for gaming accounts, a password you have not used anywhere else, and a way of telling a genuine confirmation message from an imitation.
• After Step 4 you can take a large download from start to first screen without guessing, and you know which three settings to change when the picture stutters.
• After Step 5 you know who classifies games in Australia, how optional purchases are presented, what consumer law covers, and how to close an account you no longer want.

The one checklist to do before anything else

If you read nothing else today, do this. It takes about ten minutes, it costs nothing, and it removes most of the problems people hit later.

1. 01Decide which computer in the house this is for, and check it is a desktop or laptop, not a tablet.
2. 02Check how much free space the main drive has. Anything under 50 GB will make Step 4 uncomfortable.
3. 03Find out whether your home internet plan has a data allowance, and how much of it is left this month.
4. 04Set aside, or create, one email address you will use for game accounts and nothing else.
5. 05Agree with everyone in the household who will use the computer, and roughly when.

The full set of checklists, formatted to print on a single sheet each, lives on the checklists page.

A worked example: one hypothetical household

The following household is invented to show the shape of the course. It is not a real family, nothing here is anybody's experience, and no outcome is being promised.

Imagine a four-year-old Windows laptop in a lounge room in a Victorian country town, used mostly for schoolwork. One adult in the house has become interested in a historical shooter after seeing it mentioned online. The laptop has 8 GB of memory, an integrated graphics chip and 42 GB free. The household internet plan is unlimited but slow in the evenings.

Step 1 tells them what the game will want: an account, a working email address, a large download, and somewhere between forty and sixty gigabytes of disk. Step 2 tells them that 42 GB free is not enough, and that the integrated graphics chip is the part most likely to limit them. They clear old files and decide to try the game at low settings rather than buy anything. Step 3 has them make a separate email address and a long password. Step 4 has them start the download at breakfast rather than at eight in the evening. Step 5 has them look up the game's Australian classification before a younger member of the household asks to try it.

Nothing in that sequence involved a purchase, and the order mattered more than the detail. That is the whole idea of this workbook.

What this course asks you to spend

Nothing. There is no sign-up, no account, no email list, no quiz and no certificate. The checklists do not remember what you have ticked, because this site stores nothing in your browser at all — see the cookie policy if you want the detail.

The practical work in each step is also unpaid. Reading a computer's specifications, creating an email address, checking a classification rating and changing graphics settings are all things you can do with the machine and the connection you already have.

Where Enlisted appears in this course, and why

A course about starting a game is thin if it never names one, so this one names Enlisted, which the vendor describes as a new game set in the atmosphere of the Second World War. It appears in Step 1 as the example of what registration involves, and in Step 5 as the example of why you check a classification rating before a younger player asks for a turn.

Two honest things about that choice. The publisher of this site has a commercial relationship with the affiliate network that operates the link to Enlisted, and is paid when a reader registers an account after following it. And the vendor's own description is short, so this course repeats only what the vendor states — registration, confirming an email address, and signing in to play — and says plainly when something is not stated rather than filling the gap.

Visit the Enlisted website Paid affiliate link. If you register after following it, this site is paid a commission; what you pay is unaffected, and the steps say the same thing whether you follow it or not.

Official Australian help, and what each body does

• Australian Classification Board — classifies films, computer games and some publications for sale or distribution in Australia, and publishes the rating and consumer advice for each one.
• eSafety Commissioner — the national online safety regulator, which takes reports about cyberbullying, image-based abuse and seriously harmful online content.
• Scamwatch — run by the National Anti-Scam Centre, it collects scam reports and describes current approaches, including fake account and payment messages.
• Australian Cyber Security Centre — publishes the Australian Government's guidance on passwords, multi-factor authentication and updates for individuals and families.
• ACCC — administers the Australian Consumer Law, which covers digital products and the conduct of businesses selling to Australians.
• OAIC — the national privacy regulator, responsible for the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

How this course is written and kept current

It is written by the editorial team at M - Style Europe s.r.o. There are no named authors, because no individual's authority is being offered as a reason to believe any of it. General statements are either linked to the body that publishes them or written as ordinary guidance you can check for yourself; claims about a specific game come only from what its vendor states.

The steps are reviewed when something in them stops being accurate — a government page moves, an operating system changes where its system information lives — and the review date sits in the footer of every page. The method is described further on the About page.

Short questions

Do I have to do the steps in order?

No, but Step 2 is worth doing before Step 4, because there is little point starting a large download onto a drive that cannot hold it.

Is this course connected to any game publisher?

No. It is published independently, and the only commercial relationship is the affiliate arrangement described above and on the funding page.

Do I need to buy anything to finish the course?

No. Every checklist can be completed with a computer you already own and an internet connection.

Can I print the checklists?

Yes. The checklists page gathers all five and prints on plain white paper without the header or footer.