A five-step course for people in Australia opening their first downloadable PC game
Each of the five steps takes about eight to twelve minutes to read, so the whole course is a little under an hour if you read it in one sitting. Most people do not: they read a step, work through its checklist at the computer, and come back the next evening for the next one.
How this site is funded
Some of the links on Hollow Tier are paid affiliate links. If you follow one of them to a vendor's website and go on to create and activate an account there, the publisher of this site is paid a commission by the affiliate network that operates the link. You pay nothing extra, and you can read and use every page of this course without following any of those links. The commission does not decide what the course says or which products it mentions — the Affiliate Disclosure explains exactly what does.
The five steps
- What you are actually signing up for — the difference between the client, the account and the game, and what "single opt-in" means on a sign-up form.
- Working out whether your desktop can run it — reading a requirements table, finding your own specifications, and why operating system support is the first thing to check.
- Reading the terms, the privacy notice and the rating — the four passages that matter in a long document, and where to find an Australian classification.
- Installing it and getting through the first session — downloading from a source you trust, creating and activating the account, and the settings to change before you play.
- Spending money, or not, and settling into a routine — in-game currencies, randomised items, refunds under Australian law, and keeping the account yours.
Every step ends in a checklist you can print and tick with a pen. The All checklists page gathers the five of them on one sheet for exactly that purpose.
Who this course is for, and who it is not for
This course is written for an adult in Australia who has decided to try an online PC game that is downloaded and installed, rather than one that runs in a browser or on a phone, and who has not done it before. It assumes you can use a desktop computer for ordinary things — email, banking, a word processor — and nothing beyond that. Every term is explained the first time it appears.
It is not for you if you already run a gaming rig, compare frame rates, or know what a launcher is. It is not a buying guide, it does not rank games, and it will not tell you which one to pick. It also does not cover consoles, mobile games, or games on Linux, because the kind of game it uses as its running example is published for Windows and macOS desktops only.
What you will be able to do after each step
After Step 1 you will be able to read a game's sign-up page and say, out loud, what the publisher is asking you for and what it is giving you. After Step 2 you will be able to open your own computer's system information, read a published requirements table beside it, and decide whether the two match — before you spend an evening downloading something that will not start.
After Step 3 you will be able to find the four passages in a terms-of-service document that have practical consequences for you, and look up a game's Australian classification. After Step 4 you will have an account that works and settings you chose on purpose. After Step 5 you will know how the money side works and what your rights are if something goes wrong.
The one checklist to do before anything else
If you only do one thing on this site, do this. Write down the exact name and version of your operating system; note how much free space the drive you install to has left; confirm the email address you will use for the account is one you still control and can open on that same computer; and decide now, in advance, how much money — if any — you are willing to put into this over the next three months. That figure can be zero. A figure decided in a calm moment is worth more than any advice given later.
Step 2 turns the first two of those into a proper procedure, and Step 5 comes back to the last one.
What you can do without paying anything
Everything this course teaches can be done at no cost. Checking your hardware costs nothing; the tools are built into Windows and macOS. Reading a terms-of-service document costs nothing. Looking up an Australian classification on the Classification Board website costs nothing. Whether a particular game charges to create an account is a question only that game's own pricing page can answer — check it there rather than taking anyone's word for it, including ours.
The course never requires a purchase and has no paid tier, because it has no accounts, no sign-ups and nothing to sell.
A worked example we follow through the course
To keep the advice concrete, each step returns to the same hypothetical household: two adults sharing one five-year-old desktop computer in a regional town, on a connection that slows noticeably after dinner. They are invented for the purpose of illustration — there is no real household here, no interview, and nothing either of them says about any product's results.
They show the shape of a decision rather than proving anything. When Step 2 measures a five-year-old machine against a requirements table, theirs is the machine. When Step 5 asks how two people sharing one account agree a spending limit, they are the two people.
Where World of Warships appears, and why
One product is named repeatedly in this course: World of Warships, an online game published for Windows and Mac desktops. It appears because the publisher of this site has a commercial relationship with the affiliate network that promotes it, and that is the honest reason. It is used as a worked example of the kind of sign-up a Step 1 reader will meet — the vendor describes the path as a single opt-in followed by a download and creating and activating an account.
Nothing else is claimed about it here. Where this course needs a fact about that game that its vendor does not state, the course says so and tells you where to look instead, which is the vendor's own site.
Official Australian help
Several Australian government bodies publish free material that is more authoritative than anything a site like this can offer, and the steps link to them where they are relevant. The Australian Classification Board classifies games sold and distributed in Australia. The eSafety Commissioner publishes guidance on online safety, including for families with children who game. Scamwatch, run by the National Anti-Scam Centre, collects reports of scams. The Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes advice on securing devices and accounts. The ACCC administers the Australian Consumer Law, and the OAIC administers the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
How this course is written and kept current
The course is written by the editorial team at GO-SERVIS group s.r.o. There are no bylines, because the pages are not anybody's personal account of anything. Each step relies on three kinds of source: documents published by Australian government bodies, documentation published by the vendor of whatever is being described, and general technical practice that holds across the whole category rather than inside one product.
The pages are reviewed as a set, and the date of the last review is printed in the footer of every page. The About page sets out the method in full, including the commercial relationship behind the one product this course names.
Short questions
Do I need an account on this site?
No. There is no account, no sign-up and no form anywhere on Hollow Tier. Nothing you tick on a checklist is saved, because nothing is stored in your browser at all.
Will the checklists remember what I ticked?
No, and that is deliberate. The boxes are printed shapes, not controls. Print the checklists page and use a pen.
Is this an official site for any game?
No. Hollow Tier is published by GO-SERVIS group s.r.o. and is not an official, authorised or partner site for any game, publisher or platform.