A five-step course on joining an online game, written for people in Australia who have never done it before
Each step takes about eight to twelve minutes to read, so the whole course is a bit over an hour if you sit down with it in one go. Most people read one step, do its checklist, and come back the next evening.
How this site is paid for. Pale Matrix is published by East European Media Service s.r.o. Some steps name real games, and the link to Star Stable Online is a paid affiliate link: if you create an account after following it, the affiliate network that operates the link pays us a commission. Your price is the same whether you use our link, type the address yourself, or never follow it at all. You can finish all five steps and every checklist without spending a cent, and nothing on this site asks you to. The full explanation is on our Affiliate Disclosure page.
The five steps
- What an online game account actually is
The difference between a game you buy once, a game you download free and pay inside, and a game you subscribe to. - Working out what your household needs
Which device you already own, what the connection has to do, and how much you are willing to spend each month. - Reading the terms, the charges and the classification
Where the money actually leaves your account, and how to find the rating before anyone installs anything. - Setting up the account and checking it works
Making the first account carefully: email, password, payment, parental controls, and a test of all of it. - Living with it: updates, spending and time
What to review each month once the novelty wears off, and how to stop paying when the game is finished with.
Who this course is for, and who it is not for
This course is for an adult in Australia who is about to join an online game for the first time, or who is standing next to a child who wants to. You might have been asked for a game at a birthday, or seen a friend playing something on a laptop, and realised you do not know what the sign-up actually commits you to.
It assumes nothing. If you do not know what a subscription is, what a launcher does, or why a game asks for an email address at all, those are explained the first time they come up.
It is not for you if you already run three game accounts and want tips on a specific title. There is nothing here about playing well, about particular quests, or about getting better at anything. The subject is the decision and the setup around a game, not the game.
What you will be able to do after each step
Each step ends with something you can do rather than something you know. After Step 1 you can look at any game's store page and say out loud how it charges. After Step 2 you can say which of your household's devices is the one to use and what it would cost per month at the top end.
After Step 3 you can find a game's terms, refund wording and Australian classification without help. After Step 4 you have an account you control, with the payment method and the parental settings checked rather than assumed. After Step 5 you have a monthly habit that keeps the spending visible and a plan for cancelling cleanly.
The morning round — do this first
The one checklist to work through before anything else
Five minutes, before you read a single review or open a single store page.
- Write down who the game is for and how old they are. The age decides most of what follows.
- Write down the one device it will be played on, by name: the family laptop, the iPad, a particular phone.
- Write down a monthly figure in Australian dollars that you would be comfortable seeing on a statement every month for a year.
- Decide which adult's email address and payment card the account will sit on, and that it will not be a child's.
- Put those four answers somewhere you will still have them in a week.
A worked example you can follow through the course
A hypothetical household runs through all five steps as a thread you can compare against your own: two adults, one eleven-year-old, one laptop that is four years old, one shared tablet, and a fixed broadband connection in a suburb with ordinary speeds. This household is an illustration invented for the course. It is not a real family, nobody in it is named, and it makes no claim about how any game performed for anyone.
In Step 2 the household settles on the laptop, with the tablet as the fallback. In Step 3 it finds a monthly charge and a separate in-game currency and decides how to treat each. In Step 5 it reviews the charge after eight weeks. The example sits in a box on each step page, so you can skip it.
What you can do without paying anything
A good deal of this category costs nothing. Most online games let you make an account and play a limited version at no charge, and nearly all publish their terms, privacy notice and system requirements openly, so Steps 1 and 3 can be done entirely from free material.
The Classification Board's database is free to search, and so is the eSafety Commissioner's advice. Parental controls are built into Windows, macOS, iOS and Android at no extra cost. Decide at the end to spend nothing, and you have still done the course properly.
Where Star Stable Online appears in this course, and why
Star Stable Online is an online horse-riding game played on desktop computers, phones and tablets. We mention it because it sits in the category this course is about and because it is the one product on this site we are paid to link to — that second reason is stated plainly rather than hidden, and it is why the link below carries the note it does.
Everything we say about it comes from what the vendor and the affiliate network publish: an account can be created and the game started at no cost, and money can be spent inside it later. Anything beyond that, prices in Australian dollars included, the vendor has not stated to us, so we do not state it either.
Visit the Star Stable Online website
Paid link. If you create an account after following it, the affiliate network that operates the link pays us a commission. It costs you nothing extra and the course does not change depending on whether you follow it.
Official Australian help
Five Australian bodies publish free material that covers most questions this course raises. The Australian Classification Board is the body that rates games for release in Australia and keeps a searchable database of those ratings. The eSafety Commissioner is the national online safety regulator and publishes guidance for parents and carers.
Scamwatch, run by the National Anti-Scam Centre, takes reports about scams and describes how common ones work. The ACCC administers the Australian Consumer Law. The OAIC is the national privacy regulator, and the ACSC publishes advice on passwords and account security.
How this course is written and kept current
The five steps were written in order by the editorial team at East European Media Service s.r.o., as one sequence rather than as separate articles, which is why Step 4 can assume you have done Step 2. General statements about Australian law and classification link to the government body responsible for them; statements about a particular game come from that vendor's published material, and where the vendor says nothing, the course says so.
It is reviewed twice a year and after any change we become aware of in the Australian rules it describes. The review date in the footer changes when the text does. Our About page sets out the method in full, including the commercial relationship behind the Star Stable Online link.
Short FAQ
Do I have to do the steps in order?
No, but Steps 2, 3 and 4 refer back to the answers you wrote down in earlier steps, so out of order you will be guessing at your own figures.
Is there anything to sign up for here?
No. There is no account, no newsletter and no form on this site. The checklists do not remember what you have ticked, because nothing is stored in your browser at all.
Is this course run by a game company?
No. Pale Matrix is published by East European Media Service s.r.o., an independent publisher. It is not an official site for any game, not a reseller, and not authorised by any vendor.
Can I print the checklists?
Yes. The All checklists page gathers all six in order and prints on plain white paper with a button at the top.
Nothing on this site is professional advice, and nothing here says you must buy anything to be safe or to keep anyone safe. If a page anywhere tells you that you are at risk unless you act immediately, that is a reason to slow down, not to hurry.