A beginner's course on desktop games, written for readers in Australia

This is a short course for someone who has decided to try a game on a desktop or laptop computer and does not yet know what the decision involves. Each of the five steps takes about eight to twelve minutes to read, so the whole course is roughly an hour if you read it in one sitting. Most people spread it over a week and work through one checklist at a time, which is how it was designed to be used.

The five steps, in order

1. Step 1 — What a desktop game actually asks of you
   What the words on a game page mean, and what you are agreeing to when you install one.
2. Step 2 — Working out what your computer can run
   How to find your own specifications and compare them to a game's stated requirements without guessing.
3. Step 3 — Classification, cost and the terms you are accepting
   Reading the Australian classification, the real cost structure and the account terms before you commit.
4. Step 4 — Installing carefully and getting through the first session
   A general procedure for downloading, installing and checking that a game runs properly.
5. Step 5 — Living with it: updates, spending limits and stopping
   What to do in the weeks after, including how to set your own limits and how to leave cleanly.

Every step ends in a checklist you can work through on your own. If you would rather have them all in one place, the All checklists page gathers the five of them and prints onto a few sheets of paper.

Who this course is for, and who it is not for

It is for an adult in Australia who is curious about a game they have seen advertised, or who has been asked to install one by a friend or a family member, and who wants to understand the decision before making it. It assumes you can use a computer for ordinary things — email, a browser, a word processor — and nothing beyond that. Terms are defined the first time they appear.

It is not for people who already play regularly and want tactics, builds or performance tuning; nothing here will be new to you. It is not a review site, and it does not rank games against each other. It is also not a substitute for a conversation with a parent, carer or support service if the person you are worried about is a child or someone whose spending has become a problem. Where that is the situation, Step 5 points to the organisations that help with it.

What you will be able to do when you finish

Step 1 lets you read a game's own description and separate what it is from what it costs and what it needs. Step 2 leaves you able to open your system information panel, write down six numbers and compare them to a requirements list without asking anyone. Step 3 puts the classification and the cost structure in front of you before you install rather than after. Step 4 gives you an installation routine that transfers to any desktop software. Step 5 leaves your own limits written down, and tells you how to uninstall and close an account if you decide the game is not for you.

A worked example you can follow through the course

To keep the steps concrete, each one returns to the same hypothetical situation. It is an invented example, not a real person and not anybody's story: a household of two adults sharing one five-year-old laptop and one desktop computer, on a fixed home internet plan, where one of them wants to try a game that a colleague mentioned.

It is used only to show which questions come up and in what order. It makes no claim about how any game performed, because the household does not exist and no game was tested.

What you can do without paying

All five steps work without spending anything. The system checks in Step 2 use tools already built into Windows, macOS and Linux. The classification lookup in Step 3 is a public search run by the Australian Classification Board. The installation procedure in Step 4 is generic and applies to any desktop download. The spending limits in Step 5 are written on paper or in a notes app.

Many desktop games can be installed and played without a payment, and charge only for optional extras inside the game. Whether a particular game does that is something you confirm on the game's own page, not here — Step 3 shows you where to look and what phrasing to watch for.

Where Raid: Shadow Legends appears, and why

One named game appears in this course: Raid: Shadow Legends. It appears because the publisher of this site has a commercial relationship with the affiliate network that promotes it, and we would rather say that plainly than mention it as though we had picked it at random.

What we say about it is limited to what the vendor states: it is a battle collection role-playing game in which you assemble a group of champions and play through dungeons, boss fights and a voiced campaign across twelve locations, and the programme covers desktop computers only — Windows, macOS and Linux. Anything beyond that, including price, we do not state, because the vendor does not state it to us. The game is used in the steps as one worked example of the checks, never as a recommendation that you should install it.

Visit the Raid: Shadow Legends website Paid affiliate link. If you register and begin playing through it, the publisher of Clear Volume is paid a commission by the affiliate network. Your price is unchanged, and the course is complete without it.

Australian organisations worth knowing about

Five public bodies come up in the steps, and it is worth knowing what each one is before you meet it in context. The Australian Classification Board publishes the classification ratings and consumer advice applied to games distributed in Australia. Scamwatch, run by the National Anti-Scam Centre, collects scam reports and publishes guidance on recognising them. The eSafety Commissioner is the national online safety regulator. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission administers the Australian Consumer Law, and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner is the privacy regulator.

How this course is written and kept current

The course is written by the editorial team at DAVITON s.r.o., without individual bylines, because no single person is presented as an expert here. Each step draws on the published documentation of the operating systems involved, on the public pages of the Australian bodies listed above, and for the one named game, on the description the vendor supplies through the affiliate network. The steps are reviewed at least twice a year and sooner when a source moves; the date of the most recent review is in the footer of every page. The About page sets out the method in full.

Questions people ask before they start

Do I have to read the steps in order?

You will get more out of them in order, because each step assumes the checklist before it is done. If you only have time for one, Step 2 is the one that prevents the most wasted downloads.

Do I need to create an account on this site?

No. There is nothing to sign up for. Clear Volume has no accounts, no newsletter and no forms, and the checklists do not remember which boxes you have ticked — print them or copy them into your own notes.

Will this tell me which game to pick?

No. It tells you how to judge one for yourself. The only game named is the one we are paid to link to, and we say so every time it appears.

Does any of this apply to phones or tablets?

Some of the thinking does, but the course is written for desktop and laptop computers, and the one game named in it covers desktop computers only. Mobile versions of games can differ in content, cost and requirements.