Pure Stanza

A five-step workbook

Starting your first online PC game: a five-step course for readers in Australia

This course is written for an adult in Australia who has a desktop computer, has heard of large online games that are downloaded and played with an account, and has never set one up. Each of the five steps takes about ten to fifteen minutes to read, so the whole course is a single unhurried afternoon, or five short sittings across a week.

Nothing here needs to be bought, installed or signed up for while you read. Every step finishes with a checklist you can work through later at your own pace, and the checklists are gathered on one printable page.

How this site is paid for

Pure Stanza is published by MARTYNAT s.r.o. and carries paid affiliate links. One game, World of Warships, is used in this course as a concrete example, and the links to it are paid links: if you follow one and create and activate an account, the affiliate network that operates the link pays us a commission. You are not charged anything extra for arriving that way, and the course costs you nothing either way. The commission does not decide what the steps say, which products are named, or in what order. You can read all five steps and every checklist without following a single link. The full disclosure is here.

The five steps, in order

  1. Step 1 — What an online PC game account actually involves
    What the download, the account and the ongoing updates each mean, in plain words.
  2. Step 2 — Working out whether your desktop computer suits it
    How to find your own specifications on Windows or macOS and read a requirements list against them.
  3. Step 3 — Reading the account, classification and spending terms
    Where the terms, the privacy notice, the classification rating and the refund position live, and which lines matter.
  4. Step 4 — Installing it and checking the first session
    A general procedure for a safe download, a strong sign-in, and the five settings to check before you play.
  5. Step 5 — Settling in: spending, safety and stopping
    Randomised items, chat and reporting, household rules, and how to leave an account behind cleanly.

If you have time for one thing today, read the pre-flight checklist below: the short list worth settling before you download anything.

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

It is for someone who is curious rather than committed: someone setting up a computer for a teenager who wants to understand the account system first, or someone who simply dislikes clicking through screens they have not read.

It is not for a player who already runs several game accounts and wants tactics, builds or performance tuning. It does not teach anyone how to be good at a game. It also does not cover game consoles or phones; the whole course assumes a desktop or laptop computer running Windows or macOS, because the example offer used throughout is limited to those two systems and is not available on Linux.

What you will be able to do after each step

After Step 1 you can explain the difference between the download, the account and the in-game currency. After Step 2 you can open your own system information panel, write down six numbers, and compare them with any requirements list without guessing. After Step 3 you know which four documents to find before creating an account, and where consumer guarantees sit under Australian law.

After Step 4 you have a general procedure for downloading from a vendor's own site, setting up a sign-in that is hard to steal, and checking the first session. After Step 5 you have a household position on spending, a way to handle unpleasant behaviour in chat, and a clean method for stepping away.

The one checklist to do before anything else

Work through this before you open any download page. It takes about twenty minutes and it is the part people most often skip.

Pre-flight checklist

  • Confirm which operating system the computer runs, and its version number.
  • Check how much free space is on the drive the game would install to, and write the figure down.
  • Decide, in advance, the most you would be willing to spend in a year on this game — including zero as a valid answer.
  • Decide which email address the account will use, and whether that mailbox already has two-factor sign-in turned on.
  • If the player is under 18, read the Australian classification rating for the title and decide whether it suits them.
  • Agree with the household when the computer is available, so the first long download is not a surprise to anyone.
  • Note the vendor's own web address, so you are not relying on a search result when the time comes to download.

A worked example: one hypothetical household

Hypothetical — not a real household

Imagine an invented household of two adults in a Melbourne flat, sharing one five-year-old desktop computer. They are not real people and nothing below describes anyone's results. One of them wants to try a large online game; the other mostly wants to know what it will do to the shared machine and the shared budget.

In Step 2 they open the system panel together and write down 8 GB of memory and 60 GB of free disk space, which rules some titles in and others out before anything is downloaded. In Step 3 they notice that the account, not the download, is the thing being created. In Step 5 they set a yearly figure of zero for the first three months. The point of the example is the order of the decisions, not the figures.

What you can do without spending anything

Every task in this course is free to carry out. Checking your specifications, reading a vendor's terms and refund page, and looking up a title in the Australian Classification Board's database all cost nothing. Whether any particular title charges for an account is a question for that vendor's own website rather than for us. Spending becomes possible only once an account exists, and Step 5 deals with it separately because that is where the real money decisions live.

Where World of Warships appears in this course, and why

A course about starting an online game is thin without a real example to point at, so one title is used throughout: World of Warships. It is referred to only where a general point needs something concrete attached to it, and the links to it are paid affiliate links.

The only facts we state about it are the ones its affiliate program states: it is an affiliate program whose commission is paid on a single opt-in, a download, and the creation and activation of an account; it is offered for desktop computers running Windows or macOS, and not for Linux. Anything else — what it costs, what is inside it, how large the download is, what the system requirements are — is for the vendor's own website to tell you, and the course says so each time rather than filling the gap with guesses. The site is not operated by, affiliated with or endorsed by the game's publisher.

Visit the World of Warships website Paid link. Pure Stanza is paid a commission if you create and activate an account after following it; the price to you is the same, and nothing in this course was written to encourage the click. How this site is funded.

Official Australian help

Several Australian bodies publish free material that is more authoritative than anything a small publisher can write. Where a step touches their area, it links to them.

  • Australian Classification Board — the national body that classifies films, computer games and some publications, and publishes a searchable database of ratings.
  • eSafety Commissioner — the independent regulator for online safety, with reporting routes for serious online abuse and material for families.
  • Scamwatch — run by the National Anti-Scam Centre, collecting reports of scams and publishing warnings about current approaches.
  • ACCC — the competition and consumer regulator, which publishes guidance on consumer guarantees and misleading conduct.
  • Australian Cyber Security Centre — the government's cyber security agency, publishing plain-language advice on passwords, updates and account protection.
  • OAIC — the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the privacy regulator for the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

How this course is written and kept current

The five steps were written as one sequence by the MARTYNAT s.r.o. editorial team, then checked against the public pages of the Australian bodies listed above. There is no named author and no enrolment. General statements about law, classification and consumer rights link to the regulator that publishes them; statements about the example game come only from what its affiliate program states, and where we do not know something the course says the vendor does not state it. The review date in the footer is updated whenever a linked source changes or a reader points out an error, and the editorial method is set out on the About page.

Short FAQ

Do I have to finish the course before I can play anything?

No. The steps are ordered because the decisions are easier in that order, but nothing bad happens if you read Step 4 first or stop after Step 2.

Does the course work on a Linux machine?

The general advice does, but the example used throughout is offered for Windows and macOS only, so the setup step is written for those two systems.

Is there a sign-up, a login or a certificate?

None of the three. Pure Stanza has no accounts, no mailing list and no record of who has read what. The checklists do not remember which boxes you have ticked, because nothing is stored in your browser.

Is this the game publisher's own site?

No. Pure Stanza is an independent publication by MARTYNAT s.r.o. and has no relationship with any game publisher other than the paid affiliate links it discloses.