Step 2 of 5
Working out what you actually need
Step 1 described what an online game is. This step turns that into a short written list of your household's own requirements, so that you are judging games against something rather than against an impression.
Start from what you already own
The common mistake at this stage is to start from the game and work backwards to the household. Doing it in that order produces a shopping list: a better computer, a faster connection, a subscription. Doing it in the other order usually produces nothing to buy at all, because most online games are built to run on ordinary machines that people already have.
So the first requirement is simply an inventory. Which devices are in the house, how old are they, who uses them, and which of them could realistically be used for this? Write the answers down. The list is short and it does most of the work in this step.
One thing deserves naming here. A shared family computer and a personal phone are different propositions. On a shared machine, a game account sits alongside other people's documents, other people's logins and, often, a saved payment method in a browser. That is not a reason to refuse — it is a reason to decide deliberately which device this happens on.
The device, checked against stated requirements
Nearly every game publishes system requirements: the processor, memory, graphics capability, operating system and free storage it expects. These are usually given as minimum and recommended. Minimum means the game is expected to start and run; recommended means it is expected to run comfortably.
Checking your device against those figures is a mechanical task and it takes about five minutes.
- On a Windows computer, open Settings and look under System, then About. The processor, installed memory and Windows edition are listed there.
- On a Mac, open the Apple menu and choose About This Mac. The chip, memory and macOS version are listed there.
- On a phone or tablet, open the device's Settings and look under About or General for the model and operating system version.
- For free storage, open the storage page in the same Settings area and note the figure in gigabytes.
- Write those four numbers down: processor, memory, operating system version, free storage.
- Compare them against the requirements on the vendor's own site. Nowhere else is authoritative about a vendor's requirements.
If your device sits below the stated minimum, the honest answer is that this game is not for this device, and no setting will change that. If it sits between minimum and recommended, the game will generally run with lowered visual settings. If you cannot find requirements at all on the vendor's site, treat that as a gap in the information rather than as permission to assume.
The connection and the data allowance
Two different properties of your internet connection matter, and people tend to confuse them.
Speed is how much data arrives per second. It governs how long the initial download takes and how long updates take. It matters less to play than people expect.
Latency is how long a single message takes to make the round trip to the server and back, measured in milliseconds. It governs whether the game feels responsive. Latency is largely a function of distance and the route, which is why a game whose servers are overseas can feel slower in Australia than its speed figures suggest, and why no amount of paying for a faster plan necessarily fixes it.
Then there is the allowance. If your plan has a monthly data limit, or if the household is on a mobile connection, count the install and the updates. A large initial download plus regular patches can take a noticeable share of a modest allowance, and it is better to know that in advance than to discover it in the last week of a billing cycle.
Who is playing, and the age question
Write down who will actually play, and their age. Then do two things with that.
First, check the game's Australian classification. Computer games sold in Australia are classified, and the Australian Classification Board maintains a public register you can search by title, showing the classification and the consumer advice that goes with it. We are not going to quote a rating or an age threshold for any game here, because the register is the source and it is kept current; a figure copied into a page like this one would be out of date at some point and we would not know when.
Second, if the player is a child, decide who holds the account and the payment method. In practice this means deciding whether the parent's email address and card are attached, or whether the child's account exists with no payment method at all. Both are workable. The arrangement that causes trouble is the one nobody decided.
The eSafety Commissioner publishes guidance for parents and carers on games and online social features, including conversation prompts for households that have not discussed this before. It is free and it is written for exactly this moment.
The budget, written in dollars
Set a figure in Australian dollars for the first three months, and set it before anyone looks at a storefront. The figure can be zero. Zero is a completely ordinary answer, and many online games can be played without it changing.
The reason for doing this now is that in-game purchases are designed to be easy, which is not a criticism — making payment difficult would be bad design. But easy payment plus no agreed figure produces a household argument about three months of small transactions, and that argument is entirely avoidable.
Alongside the figure, decide the mechanism. Options that households commonly use include: no payment method stored on the account at all; prepaid gift cards bought deliberately; a requirement that every purchase is asked for out loud first; or device-level settings that require a password for each purchase. Which one suits you is yours to pick; having none of them is the thing to avoid.
If you pay for a game or for something inside one in Australia, the Australian Consumer Law and its consumer guarantees apply to that transaction. The ACCC explains those guarantees in plain language, including what a business may and may not say about refunds. Knowing that before you spend is more useful than knowing it afterwards.
The example household works through it
The invented household from the course overview — two adults, an eleven-year-old, one five-year-old shared laptop, fixed-line internet — produces this list. Device: the shared laptop, 8 GB of memory, about 60 GB free, operating system up to date. Connection: fixed line, no monthly data limit, servers likely overseas so responsiveness untested. Player: eleven, so the classification register is checked first and the account will use a parent's email address. Budget: $0 for the first three months, revisited after that, with no card stored and no purchases without asking. Rules: play in the living room, chat limited to known friends, device off an hour before bed.
This household is invented for the purpose of showing the steps in order. It is not a real family, and it says nothing about anyone's results with any product.
Notice what that list does. It is five lines long, it took fifteen minutes, and it now lets this household answer a question like “can we play this one?” with a check rather than a debate.
Where a named product fits
At this point in a course like this, the usual move is a recommendation. Here is ours, stated with its commercial basis attached: Star Stable Online is an online game we have an affiliate arrangement about, and the link below is paid. That arrangement is why it is the product named in this course and not a different one.
What we can tell you about it is narrow. The material we have states that it is an online game and that the programme pays commission on sign-up, on first play and on purchases. It does not state system requirements, prices, classification or content, so we are not going to. If you are going to measure it against the list you have just written, the vendor's own site is where the figures for that comparison live.
Paid affiliate link: if you sign up after following it, the network pays us a commission, at no extra cost to you. Visit the Star Stable Online website
Use the same list for any other game you look at. The list is the point of this step; the product named in it is not.
You should now have a written list with five lines on it: device, connection, player and classification, budget in dollars, and household rules. Step 3 uses that list — it shows you how to read a vendor's documents against it, so you can tell quickly whether a particular game fits what you have decided.
- 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.