Fresh Motive

All checklists from the course, in one printable place

The six checklists from the course, gathered so you can print them and work through them away from a screen. Nothing on this page remembers anything: the boxes are drawn, not interactive, and ticks live on paper or nowhere.

How to use these

Each checklist belongs to a step, and the steps are ordered because each one assumes the last. If you have not read the steps, the lists will still make sense — they are written as plain instructions — but a few items will look arbitrary without the paragraph that explains them, and each heading links back to that paragraph.

Work through them with a pen, at a table, with the person who wants to play present for at least Checklist 2 and Checklist 5. That last part is the one most often skipped and the one that makes the most difference, because the items about budgets, chat settings and time are agreements rather than tasks. An agreement made with the player tends to hold; a rule imposed on them tends to be worked around.

Expect Checklist 0 to take ten minutes, Checklists 1 to 3 about twenty minutes each if you are looking things up properly, and Checklist 4 as long as a download takes. Checklist 5 is the only recurring one — it is designed to take a quarter of an hour, once a month, and it is the one worth putting in a calendar.

Several items send you to a vendor's own site or to an Australian government source rather than telling you an answer. That is deliberate. Figures like system requirements, prices, classifications and refund processes change, and a number printed on a page like this one would eventually be wrong without either of us noticing. The register and the vendor are the sources; this page is the prompt.

You do not need to finish every item, and nothing here is a test. If an item does not apply to your household — no subscription, no child, no payment method — cross it out. A crossed-out item is a decision, which is the whole point of the exercise. And if you work through all six and decide against the whole idea, the course has done its job just as well as if you had signed up.

Checklist 0 — before you look at any game

  • Agree out loud who in the household is making the decision, and who is only asking.
  • Write down a figure, in Australian dollars, that the household is prepared to spend in the first three months. Zero is a legitimate figure.
  • Find out which device the game would run on, and who else uses that device.
  • Check whether the person who would play is under 18, and if so, who holds the payment method.
  • Decide where the password will be written down and who can see it.
  • Agree that nobody creates an account tonight. Reading first, signing up later.

Checklist 1 — understanding what is being asked for

  • Write down the exact name of the game being asked for, from the vendor's own site rather than from memory.
  • Note whether it needs an account, and whose email address that account would use.
  • Note whether it installs a program, and on which device.
  • Note the approximate install size and whether the device has that space free.
  • Note whether a live internet connection is needed to play at all.
  • Note whether other players can send messages, and whether that can be limited.
  • Identify which payment shape applies: one-off, subscription, free with purchases, in-game currency, or randomised items.
  • Note whether randomised paid items are part of it.
  • Look the game up on the Australian Classification Board register and write down what you find.
  • Leave the decision until Step 2. Nothing is signed up for today.

Checklist 2 — your household's requirements

  • List every device that could be used, and who else uses each one.
  • Record the processor, memory, operating system version and free storage of the chosen device.
  • Compare those four against the requirements on the vendor's own site.
  • Note whether the internet plan has a monthly data limit, and roughly how much is spare.
  • Write down who will play and how old they are.
  • Search the Australian Classification Board register for the title and record what it says.
  • Decide whose email address the account uses.
  • Write a figure in Australian dollars for the first three months. Zero is allowed.
  • Choose how payments will be controlled: no stored card, prepaid cards, ask-first, or a device password.
  • Agree where the device is used and when it goes off.
  • Keep the list. Step 3 and Step 4 both refer back to it.

Checklist 3 — reading the documents

  • Find the terms of service, the privacy notice and the purchase or refund terms on the vendor's own site.
  • Note the date each document was last updated.
  • Search the terms for suspension and termination; write one line on how an account can end.
  • Write one line on what happens to purchased items if the account ends or the game closes.
  • In the privacy notice, write one line on what is collected and one on who receives it.
  • Check whether advertising or analytics partners are named.
  • Find the minimum age or parental consent rule and write it down.
  • If a subscription is involved, write down how to cancel and when cancellation takes effect.
  • Confirm the privacy notice gives a contact point for questions or complaints.
  • Confirm you reached the site by typing the address, not through an advertisement or message.
  • Compare your four answers against the requirements list from Step 2 before going further.

Checklist 4 — setting up and checking

  • Reach the vendor's site by typing the address, and check the address bar.
  • Create the account with the agreed email address and a unique passphrase of several words.
  • Choose a display name that reveals nothing about the player.
  • Turn on multi-factor authentication if it is offered, and store the recovery codes.
  • Write the email address, password and date in the place you chose.
  • Download the client only from the vendor's site or an established app store.
  • Let the first update finish before playing.
  • Set chat, friend requests and visibility before the first session.
  • Confirm what is stored in the payment area, including that nothing is, if that was the decision.
  • Sign out and sign back in to prove the recorded password works.
  • Send yourself a password reset email to prove the address is read.
  • Check the storage figure after the first update.
  • Play the first ten minutes with somebody else in the room.

Checklist 5 — the ongoing part, monthly

  • Pick a fixed monthly date for the fifteen-minute review and tell the household what it is.
  • Read the purchase history and write the monthly total next to the figure from Step 2.
  • Check free storage on the device.
  • Confirm the privacy and chat settings are unchanged.
  • Confirm updates are installing, for the game and for the device.
  • Ask the player whether anything unpleasant has happened, and listen without threatening to remove the game.
  • Agree the rule that nobody signs in from a link somebody sent.
  • Agree the rule that the password is never given to anyone.
  • Agree a shape for when the game is played, including a warning before it ends.
  • Keep receipts and confirmation emails somewhere findable.
  • Know the leaving sequence: cancel, remove payment method, save records, close account, ask about data, uninstall.
  • Re-read the vendor's terms and privacy notice dates twice a year.