Step 1 of 5

What a free-to-play online game actually is

Before anything is installed, it helps to know what kind of thing you are installing, who is paid for it, and what the words on the page mean. That is all this step does. Nothing here requires you to touch a single setting.

Vocabulary
The four words that do most of the work

Most confusion about computer games comes from four words that are used loosely in conversation and precisely in the small print. Once they separate in your mind, the rest of the subject becomes ordinary.

Notice what "free-to-play" does not tell you. It says nothing about how much is sold inside, how much time an unpaid player needs to reach the same place as a paying one, or whether anything is sold through randomised packs. Those are separate questions, and each game answers them differently. Step 5 returns to them with money in hand.

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Where the money comes from

Every game has a business model, and the model shapes the experience more than the graphics do. There are four common ones, and a game's own front page usually makes clear which it uses.

The third model is the one this course concentrates on, because it is the one a newcomer most often meets and the one where the costs are least visible at the start. Nothing is wrong with it. It simply moves the decision about money from before you install to some weeks after, when you are more invested and less likely to think about it carefully.

That is worth knowing in advance rather than discovering later, which is the whole reason this step comes first.

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Reading a vendor's own page

You can learn most of what matters from the game's own website in about four minutes, if you know which parts to read. The marketing text at the top is rarely one of them.

1. Find the system requirements. They are usually linked in the footer or on a page named "requirements" or "specifications". Step 2 is entirely about reading them, so for now just confirm they exist and that your type of computer is listed.
2. Find the words that describe payment. Look for a shop, a store, a "premium" page, or a currency with an invented name. If one exists, the game sells things inside itself.
3. Find the terms of service and the privacy policy. You do not have to read either in full today. Check that both are published, dated, and written in a language you can read.
4. Find out where support lives. A published support address or help centre is a reasonable sign that an account problem can be resolved by a person.
5. Find the age guidance. Many vendors state a minimum age in their terms. In Australia, the separate question of a classification rating is handled by the Australian Classification Board, which publishes the national classification for games.

If any of those five are missing, that is not proof of anything bad, but it is a reason to slow down. A company that will hold your email address and possibly your card details should be willing to publish its terms and a way to reach it.

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What you agree to by installing

Installing a game involves at least two agreements, and most people click past both. They are worth understanding once, in general terms, because they apply across the whole category.

The first is the terms of service: the rules for using the company's service, including conduct in multiplayer, what happens if the account is suspended, and whether accounts may be transferred or sold. The second is the privacy policy: what the company collects while you play, and who it shares that with.

There is often a third document for the shop inside the game, covering refunds and the status of whatever you have bought. If you are going to read exactly one page before spending any money, that is the page.

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The example used in this course

From Step 2 onwards, the course needs a concrete example to point at. It uses War Thunder, an online game published by Gaijin Entertainment, because its sign-up path has the standard shape: create an account, confirm the email address, log in, and begin the tutorial. That is exactly what Steps 3 and 4 teach, so the example and the instruction line up.

Two limits apply to what we say about it. First, every claim we make about that game comes from the material its affiliate network publishes; where that material is silent, we write that the vendor does not state it rather than guessing. Second, the game runs on desktop and laptop computers — Windows, macOS and Linux — so a phone or tablet is not an option for it.

We have no relationship with the studio. The links below are paid affiliate links, which is how this workbook is funded.

Visit the War Thunder website

Paid affiliate link. GRAVELGANT s.r.o. is paid a commission if an account is created and confirmed after following it. You pay the same either way, and the course can be completed without using the link.

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The Australian angle

Two public bodies are relevant at this stage, and both publish freely readable guidance.

The Australian Classification Board assigns the classification a game carries in Australia. If you want to know what rating a particular title has, its database is the source to use rather than a forum post. This course does not state any rating or age threshold for any title, because the authoritative answer belongs to the Board.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission administers the Australian Consumer Law, which applies to digital products sold to people in Australia and prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct by sellers. Its site explains consumer guarantees in plain language, which is useful background before you buy anything inside a game.

Summary
Before you move on

You should now be able to say, in one sentence and without jargon, what kind of product you are about to install and how the people who made it expect to earn from it. That sentence is the entire output of Step 1. If you cannot write it yet, the missing piece is almost always the payment model, and the game's own shop page will supply it in a minute.

Step 2 moves from the product to your own machine, and from reading to measuring.