Step 5 of 5

Money, classification and staying in control

The last step is the one that pays for itself. It covers what is actually sold inside a game that costs nothing to install, how to translate an invented currency back into Australian dollars, what classification tells a household, and which Australian body handles a purchase that went wrong.

Data card 5.1
The three things that get sold

Inside a game that costs nothing to install, almost everything on sale falls into one of three groups, and knowing which group an item belongs to makes the decision much easier.

None of these is wrong to buy. The useful habit is naming the group out loud before paying, because "I am buying convenience" is a different sentence from "I am buying something that looks nice", and the two deserve different amounts of thought.

Data card 5.2
Translating in-game currency back into dollars

When a game sells an invented currency in bundles, the price of any item is two sums away from Australian dollars, and the bundles rarely match the prices neatly. That is why the arithmetic is worth doing once, on paper, before the first purchase rather than after the fifth.

1. Write down the price in AUD of the bundle you would actually buy, including any platform fee shown at checkout.
2. Write down how many units of the invented currency that bundle contains.
3. Divide to get the cost of one unit in dollars, and keep the number.
4. Multiply by the price of the item you want. That figure, not the one on the screen, is what the item costs.
5. Ask whether you would pay that figure for the same thing if the shop were priced in dollars from the start.

Do the same sum again for any subscription or season pass, this time across a year. Both answers are frequently larger than people expect, which is the entire point of doing the arithmetic in advance.

Data card 5.3
Randomised items

Some games sell containers whose contents are decided by chance: you pay a known amount and receive an unknown item. This is a distinct kind of purchase from buying a named item, because the thing you are paying for is a chance rather than an object.

Two practical points follow. First, the arithmetic above cannot be completed for a randomised purchase, since there is no fixed price for the item you want — only an expected number of attempts. Second, these purchases are closer in shape to a wager than an ordinary sale, and they are not suitable for children or young people. If anyone under 18 plays in your household, the sensible arrangement is that randomised purchases are not made at all, and that no payment method is available to make them with.

Australian classification information for a particular game, including any advice about in-game purchases, is published by the Australian Classification Board. That database is the authority on what a title carries here; this course states no rating for any title because the Board's record is the one that counts.

Data card 5.4
Classification and the household

A classification is a statement about content, assigned under the national scheme. It is a starting point for a household conversation, not the end of one, and it says nothing about who you will meet in a multiplayer match.

For a shared computer the practical measures are ordinary ones: separate user accounts on the computer itself, so that settings and saved payment details are not shared; an agreement about which games are installed; and a look at whatever parental controls the operating system and the game service each provide. The eSafety Commissioner publishes guidance for families on gaming and online safety, written for Australian households.

Data card 5.5
Payment arrangements worth setting up once

• Do not store a card on the account. Entering the details each time is a small friction that does useful work.
• Prefer a method with a fixed ceiling, such as a prepaid card or a secondary account holding a set amount, especially on a shared computer.
• Turn on notifications from your bank so that a purchase is visible the day it happens rather than at the end of the month.
• Keep the receipts. Services email them; file them in a folder. They are what a refund request is built on.
• Require a password or a second step for purchases if the service allows it.

Data card 5.6
If a purchase goes wrong in Australia

Digital products sold to people in Australia are covered by the Australian Consumer Law, which includes consumer guarantees and prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct by sellers. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission explains those guarantees in plain language, including how they apply to digital purchases and what a seller must do when something is not as described.

The usual order is: contact the seller's support first, in writing, with the receipt and a clear description of the problem; keep the correspondence; and if the response is unsatisfactory, take the matter to your state or territory consumer protection agency or to the ACCC. If an unauthorised purchase was made with your card, your bank's disputed transaction process is a separate route that runs in parallel.

If the episode looks less like a faulty product and more like a deliberate deception, Scamwatch takes reports and describes the approaches currently in circulation.

Data card 5.7
Third parties selling in-game items

There are sites and individuals offering in-game currency, items or whole accounts at prices below the official ones. Before considering any of them, read the terms of service you accepted in Step 1: most services in this category prohibit selling or transferring accounts, and a transaction that breaches the terms can cost the account itself.

The practical position is simpler still. A purchase made outside the vendor's own shop has no receipt the vendor will recognise, no consumer guarantee you can easily enforce, and no support path when it fails.

Data card 5.8
Time, not just money

Games built to be played for years are designed to reward returning, often through daily tasks and limited-time events. That design is not sinister, but it does make time the other currency, and the one people account for least.

Two habits keep it in proportion. Decide before a session roughly how long it will run, and set a timer if the game has no clock on screen. And notice whether you are playing because you want to or because something expires — if it is the second, skipping it once is a useful experiment in how much the expiry actually mattered.

If gaming or in-game spending has stopped feeling voluntary for someone in your household, Australian support services exist and are free. A general practitioner is a reasonable starting point for a referral, and state and territory health departments publish service directories.

Data card 5.9
Leaving well

At some point the game stops being interesting, and leaving tidily takes ten minutes. Uninstall the client through your operating system's usual program list, which also frees the space you noted in Step 2. Remember that uninstalling does not close the account: the record stays with the service.

If you want the account itself removed, look for an account deletion or closure option in the service's settings, or ask its support team in writing. Where a service is covered by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner explains what rights people in Australia have to access and correct the personal information an organisation holds about them.

Finally, remove any stored payment method before you walk away, and cancel anything recurring. Doing it on the way out is easier than noticing it on a statement eight months later.

Summary
Before you move on

That is the whole course. You can describe the product and its money model, you have measured your own computer, you hold a confirmed account with a unique password, you have finished a tutorial with deliberate settings, and you have a written rule about spending and a list of the right Australian bodies to contact if something goes wrong.

Nothing obliges you to spend a cent on any of it, and the course works exactly as well if you never follow one of our links. The last page gathers all five checklists in one place so you can print them.