Pure Premise

All five checklists

Every checklist from the course, gathered here in order. The page is laid out to print cleanly on paper, and the boxes are printed marks rather than controls — nothing on this site records what you have ticked.

How to use these

The checklists are the course in compressed form. Each one belongs to a step, and each line is something the step explains the reasoning for. If a line is not obvious, open the step it came from and read that section; the links are above each list.

Work through them in order rather than skipping ahead. The order is not arbitrary: the email address chosen in Step 1 is the one used in Step 4, the machine chosen in Step 2 is the one the first session runs on in Step 5, and the spending figure written at the very start is the one that keeps Step 5 short. A line that depends on an earlier answer will not make sense without it.

Print this page if you prefer paper, or keep it open in a second window. The boxes beside each line are drawn in ink, not in software. This site stores nothing in your browser, so a tick cannot be remembered between visits — which is deliberate, and the Cookie Policy explains exactly what that means technically.

You do not have to finish. A reader who does Step 1 and Step 2 and then decides the whole thing is not for them has got real value out of the course and owes nobody an explanation. There is no account, no progress record and nothing that notices you stopped.

If you are working through this with somebody else — a teenager, a parent, a friend who asked you to help — read the lines aloud and let them answer. The checklists work much better as a conversation than as something one person silently completes on behalf of another, because most of the decisions in them are household decisions rather than technical ones.

Finally, keep the sheet from Step 2 after you finish. Those five facts about your computer are the ones you will want again in a year, and the ones nobody can ever find when they need them.

Step 1 — What a PC game account actually is

  • Say out loud, in your own words, the difference between the client, the account and the service.
  • Decide whose account this will be, and write the name down.
  • Choose the email address the account will use, and open that mailbox now to confirm you can.
  • Check that the password you intend to use is not one you already use anywhere else.
  • Draft a display name that is not your real name, your email address or a handle you use elsewhere.
  • Write down which of the two arrangements applies: registering directly with the game's publisher, or through a storefront account you already have.
  • Note that no payment details are needed at registration, and that you will not enter any until Step 5.
  • Leave the choice of computer blank for now. Step 2 decides it.

Step 2 — Working out whether your computer can run it

  • Confirm the computer is a desktop or laptop running Windows, macOS or Linux.
  • Write down the operating system and its version number.
  • Write down the processor manufacturer and full model number.
  • Write down the installed memory in gigabytes.
  • Write down the graphics hardware, and whether it is a separate card or built into the processor.
  • Write down free storage space and total drive size, in that order.
  • Open the vendor's own requirements page today and compare all five lines, one at a time.
  • If storage is the line that falls short, free the space before doing anything else.
  • Check your monthly data allowance against the size of the installation.
  • Decide whether a wired connection to the router is possible for the machine you chose.
  • Install nothing that offers to scan your computer and tell you its specifications for you.

Step 3 — Classification, terms and your consumer rights

  • Search the Australian Classification Board database for the exact title.
  • Read the classification marking and the consumer advice line, and read them aloud if a minor will play.
  • Save the licence agreement and the terms of service as dated files before accepting them.
  • Search the agreement for: terminate, virtual, refund, change, conduct, age.
  • Note the service's own minimum age for holding an account, separate from the classification.
  • Answer the four privacy questions: what is collected, who it is shared with, where it is stored, how to get it deleted.
  • Note that consumer guarantees under Australian law apply regardless of what the agreement says about refunds.
  • If randomised items are involved, decide the household rule on them before the account exists.
  • Write down who holds the payment details and whether they will be stored in the account.

Step 4 — Registering and confirming your email address safely

  • Secure the mailbox first: long passphrase, second factor, recovery details current.
  • Open the vendor's site by typing the address or using your own bookmark.
  • Check the domain in the address bar before typing anything into a form.
  • Enter the email address and read it back character by character.
  • Generate a long, unique passphrase and save it in a password manager before submitting.
  • Use the display name you drafted, and treat it as permanent and public.
  • Confirm the email address from the message in your own mailbox, within the stated time.
  • Check the confirmation message: expected timing, matching sender domain, matching link, no request for passwords or payment details.
  • Turn on two-factor authentication before playing, preferring an authenticator application.
  • Store recovery codes offline, not in the mailbox they protect, and agree who holds them.
  • Sign out and sign in once to prove the whole chain works.
  • Install the client only from the vendor's own site or a storefront you already use.

Step 5 — Your first session, and deciding about spending

  • Set the detail preset one notch lower than you expect, before the first session.
  • Turn on the frame rate display so you have a number rather than an impression.
  • Set master, music, effects and voice volumes before you start.
  • Check mouse sensitivity, key bindings and vertical axis inversion.
  • Narrow the privacy and social settings: who can message you, who sees your profile.
  • Decide what notifications and marketing email the game may send.
  • Look through the accessibility options, including subtitles, colour modes and remappable controls.
  • Find the mute, block and report controls before your first match.
  • Decide the household rule on voice chat with strangers.
  • Write your first-month spending figure in Australian dollars, and keep payment details off the account.
  • Convert any in-game currency back to dollars before each purchase.
  • Set a finishing time for the first session, and stop at it.
  • Diarise a security review of the account in three months.