Workbook · five steps · Australia
A five-step course on free-to-play PC games, for people who have never installed one
The five steps below take about forty minutes to read end to end, and you can stop after any one of them. If you work through the checklist at the end of each step as you go, set aside an evening.
Nullphase is published by Original TRANS s.r.o. and paid for by affiliate commission. Some links on this site go to a game publisher, and if you create an account after following one, we are paid a fee by the affiliate network that operates the link. You pay nothing extra, and you can read all five steps and every checklist without following any of those links. The full explanation is on our affiliate disclosure page.
- Step 1 — What "free to play" actually costsWhere the money comes from when nobody asks you for any, and the four things to look for in a game's store.
- Step 2 — Working out whether your computer can run itFinding your own specifications, reading a requirements list, and the operating-system question that stops many people before they start.
- Step 3 — Accounts, email confirmation and the terms you agree toWhat a game account is, why confirmation emails exist, and the five parts of a terms document worth reading.
- Step 4 — Your first hour: install, settings and checking it worksA general installation order for a desktop game, the settings to change first, and how to tell a bad connection from a slow computer.
- Step 5 — Staying in control: spending, randomised items and timeSetting your own limits, what randomised in-game items are, the classification system, and household accounts.
Who this course is for, and who it is not for
This course is written for an adult in Australia who has heard that a lot of computer games now cost nothing to start, has never installed one, and would like to understand what is actually involved before clicking anything. You do not need to know what a graphics card is. You do not need to have played anything since the games that came bundled with an old office computer. Every term is explained the first time it is used.
It is also useful if you are the person in a household who ends up doing the setting up for somebody else — a partner, a parent, a teenager — and you want to know what you are agreeing to on their behalf.
It is not for you if you already build your own computers, already have accounts with several game publishers, or are looking for tactics, builds or reviews. Nothing here tells you which game is good. The course teaches you how to answer that question for yourself, which is a different and more durable skill.
The one check to do before anything else
Before you read a single word about any particular game, find out what operating system your computer runs and write it down. Almost every disappointment in this area comes from skipping that one step.
Torque check — before you start
- Open your computer's system information panel and note the operating system name and version.
- Note whether the machine is a desktop tower, a laptop, or a tablet with a detachable keyboard.
- Check how much free space the main drive has, in gigabytes.
- Decide, now, the maximum amount in Australian dollars you would be willing to spend on a game in a year — even if that number is zero.
Step 2 explains what to do with those four facts. If your computer runs macOS, note that many desktop games — including the one this site mentions by name — are not released for it at all, and no amount of configuration changes that.
What you will be able to do by the end
Each step ends with a checklist, and each checklist exists because it produces something you can keep. After Step 1 you can read a game's store page and say where the money comes from. After Step 2 you can compare your own machine against a published requirements list without guessing. After Step 3 you can read an account agreement quickly and know which five parts actually matter to you.
After Step 4 you can install a desktop game in a sensible order and tell the difference between a problem with your connection and a problem with your computer. After Step 5 you can set spending and time limits that hold, and know which Australian body to contact when something goes wrong.
What you can do without spending anything
All five steps, the worked example and every checklist are readable at no cost and without an account on this site. There is no sign-up here, no email list and nothing that remembers you between visits.
In the wider category, a free-to-play game is one you can install and play without paying. That is the publisher's own description of the arrangement, not a judgement about whether paying later becomes attractive. Step 1 is entirely about the second half of that sentence, because the gap between "costs nothing to start" and "costs nothing" is where most of the confusion in this category lives.
A worked example: one hypothetical household
Throughout the course we follow an invented household in a Melbourne flat: two adults, one six-year-old desktop computer in the spare room, and a teenager who has asked whether a particular free game can go on it. Nobody in this household is real, nobody is quoted, and no claim is made about how anything turned out for them. The household exists only to show the order in which the checks happen.
In Step 1 they work out what the game's store sells. In Step 2 they discover the machine runs Windows and has enough free space, which settles the question that was actually in the way. In Step 3 they read the account terms and find the clause about account sharing. In Step 4 they install in the order described. In Step 5 they agree a household rule about spending before anyone is tempted by it.
Where Crossout appears in this course, and why
One game is named in the course: Crossout, a free-to-play online game set in post-apocalyptic surroundings, built around vehicles that players construct and modify themselves — shape, armour, weapons, support systems and decorative parts. It is named because it is a clear, ordinary example of the arrangement Step 1 describes, and because links to it earn this site a commission. Both of those things are true at once, and we would rather say so than pretend only the first is.
Everything this site says about that game comes from the publisher's own description of it. Where you see no claim from us about performance, popularity, quality or value, that is deliberate: we have not tested it and we do not review games. Our editorial method sets out what that means in practice.
Australian bodies worth knowing about
Four public bodies publish material that touches this subject, and all four are free to read.
- Australian Classification Board — the body that classifies films, computer games and some publications in Australia, and publishes the classification decisions.
- eSafety Commissioner — the national independent regulator for online safety, with guidance for adults and for families.
- Scamwatch — run by the National Anti-Scam Centre, it collects reports of scams and publishes descriptions of current ones.
- ACCC — the national competition and consumer regulator, which administers the Australian Consumer Law.
Step 3 and Step 5 point to specific pages on these sites where they help with a decision you are making at that moment.
Short questions, short answers
Do I need an account on Nullphase to read the course?
No. There is no account system, no sign-up form and no email collection anywhere on this site.
Will the checklists remember which boxes I have ticked?
No. The boxes are printed shapes, not controls. Nothing on this site stores anything in your browser. The all-checklists page has a print button so you can tick them on paper.
Is this course run by a game publisher?
No. Nullphase is published by Original TRANS s.r.o., an independent company, and is not an official, authorised or partner site of any game publisher.
Does it matter that I use a Mac?
For this category, often yes. Many desktop online games are released for Windows and Linux only, and the game named in this course is one of them. Step 2 covers how to check before you commit any time.