Working out what your household needs

Start with the device you already own

The usual order of events is backwards. Someone chooses a game, discovers it will not run, and starts looking at new computers. Doing it the other way around is cheaper and takes ten minutes: decide which device in the house this game will live on, then only consider games that run on it.

Pick one device and name it out loud — the laptop on the kitchen bench, the iPad, the desktop in the study. One, not “any of ours”. Online games want to be installed, updated and logged in to, and spreading that across three devices triples the maintenance and the number of places a password gets typed.

You will also need to know three things about that device, all of which it will tell you itself: which operating system it runs and which version, roughly how much free storage space it has, and how old it is. On Windows these sit in Settings under System, then About and Storage. On a Mac they are under the Apple menu, in About This Mac. On iPad or iPhone, look in Settings, then General, then About and iPad Storage. On Android, open Settings and look for About phone and Storage. Write all three down.

How to read a system requirements list

Games that run on a computer publish a list of minimum requirements, and it looks more technical than it is. There are usually five lines, and you only need to compare them with the three things you just wrote down.

The operating system line says which systems the game supports and from which version. If your device is older than the version listed, that is a firm no rather than a maybe.

The processor and memory lines describe how much thinking the game needs. Memory is usually given in gigabytes, written as GB. If a game asks for 4 GB and your laptop has 8 GB, that is comfortable; if it has 4 GB exactly, expect the game to work but to dislike having a browser open at the same time.

The graphics line is the one that most often decides it on older laptops, because it describes the part of the computer that draws the picture. The storage line says how much free space the installation takes, and it is worth adding a few gigabytes to whatever it says, since updates grow over time.

Apps on phones and tablets simplify all of this: the store page lists the minimum version of iOS or Android, and the store will refuse to install the app on a device that cannot run it. That protection is one honest reason to prefer the tablet for a first attempt.

Where a vendor publishes its requirements is on its own site. For Star Stable Online — the horse-riding game this course is paid to link to — the requirements, the supported devices and the current account details are on the vendor's pages rather than ours, and we would rather send you to the source than paraphrase it.

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; the price to you is unchanged, and this step would say the same thing if the link were not here.

Laptop, tablet or phone: what each is good and bad at

None of these is the right answer in general. They are right for different households.

If two devices tie, choose the one that stays in a shared room. That single decision does more for supervision than any software setting.

What the connection actually has to do

Online games are less demanding of raw speed than video streaming and more demanding of steadiness. A game sends small messages constantly, and what you notice is delay, not bandwidth.

Two words are worth knowing. Bandwidth is how much can travel at once, measured in megabits per second. Latency, often called ping, is how long a single message takes to reach the server and come back, measured in milliseconds. A connection can have plenty of bandwidth and still feel sluggish in a game if latency is high.

Vendors of online games often run their servers outside Australia, and distance adds latency that no plan can remove. This is normal and generally manageable in games that are not competitive shooters, which includes most of the social and hobby games this course is likely to be read about.

Practical checks, in order: does video play without stopping on that device in that room; is the device on wi-fi or a cable, with a cable always steadier; and does anyone else in the house do something heavy at the same time each evening. If video is fine, a game will usually be fine. If the room is at the far end of the house from the modem, moving closer is the cheapest improvement available.

Mobile data is a separate matter. Games themselves use modest amounts, but the first download and the monthly updates can be large, so do those on fixed broadband if a data allowance is a concern.

Setting the monthly figure before you see a price

Decide what you are willing to spend before you look at what anything costs, because the number you invent after seeing a price tends to be that price.

Write one figure in Australian dollars that you would be content to see on a statement every month for twelve months. Then write a second figure: the most you would accept in a single month if something extra was bought. Those two numbers are the whole budget, and together they are worth more than any comparison of plans.

Keep in mind that a subscription and in-game purchases are separate taps. A household can be paying a membership and also buying currency bundles, and these appear on the statement as different kinds of charge. Step 3 shows where to find both, and Step 5 turns the figures into a monthly review that takes two minutes.

The age question, asked before the fun question

If the player is a child, the age shapes the device, the controls and the account, so it belongs at this stage rather than after the install.

Games sold or made available in Australia are classified, and the Australian Classification Board is the body that does it and publishes a searchable database of the results. Looking a game up there takes a minute and gives you the rating and the consumer advice that goes with it, from the body that issued it rather than from a review site. Step 3 goes through how to use that database.

Two further things belong to the age question. The first is whether the game allows contact with people outside the household, and whether that can be limited — the eSafety Commissioner publishes guidance for parents and carers on settings and on conversations to have before the game starts rather than after. The second is whether the game sells randomised items, sometimes called loot boxes, where money buys an unknown item. That is a question to answer from the vendor's own description, and it is not something to put in front of a child without knowing it is there.

You do not have to resolve all of that now. You only have to write down the age and whether the player is a child, because Steps 3 and 4 branch on it.

Before you move on

• One named device, with its operating system, version and free space written down.
• A view on the connection: steady enough, or a room to move to.
• Two figures in Australian dollars: a monthly amount and a single-month ceiling.
• The player's age, and whether the account will be used by a child.

Step 3 is the reading step. With these four answers beside you, most of the terms you are about to read either match them or do not, which is a much faster way to read than trying to understand every clause.