Step 4 of 5

Installing it and getting through the first session

This is the longest step in elapsed time and the shortest in attention: most of it is a progress indicator moving while you do something else. The parts that need you are at the beginning, where the file comes from, and at the end, where the account gets secured.

Where the client should come from

The installer for an online game should come from the publisher's own website or from a major platform the publisher itself lists — and from nowhere else. This is the single security decision in the whole course that is worth being strict about, because an installer is a program you are about to give permission to write to your computer.

Three habits make this reliable. Reach the publisher's site by typing its address yourself or by following a link you have checked, rather than by clicking the first result in a search, which may be an advertisement. Look at the address bar before you save anything, and read the domain carefully — lookalike domains differ by a character. And be suspicious of any page offering a "fast downloader", a "download manager" or an "optimiser" alongside the game; the publisher's own installer needs no helper.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes general advice on obtaining and updating software safely, and Scamwatch collects reports of fake download pages and of the support scams that often follow them. Neither is specific to games; both apply.

The procedure, in order

1. Start from the publisher's own address. Type it in or follow a link you have checked. Confirm the address in the bar before anything is saved.
2. Check the free space again. The figure you wrote down in Step 2 may have changed. The drive should have comfortably more free space than the installed size the publisher states.
3. Save the installer and let the transfer finish. Put it in a folder you can find. Do not open it while it is still arriving.
4. Run the installer and read each screen. Installers often offer extras, shortcuts and a default location. Choose the install location deliberately, especially if your main drive is the smaller one.
5. Let the first update run. Almost every online game downloads a further round of content after the installer finishes, and it is often larger than the installer was. This is the part to start before dinner.
6. Create the account. Use the email address you chose in Step 1 and a long, unique password from your password manager. Read the address back before you submit it.
7. Activate the account. Open the inbox for that address and complete whatever confirmation the publisher asks for. Then sign in once, to confirm the account is live rather than merely created.
8. Turn on two-factor authentication. If the publisher offers two-step or two-factor sign-in, switch it on now and store the recovery codes somewhere other than the computer.
9. Set graphics and audio before playing. Open the settings and choose quality, resolution and volume on purpose. Start lower than the machine's maximum.
10. Play one short session, then stop. Twenty minutes is enough to find out whether anything behaves badly. Note what did, rather than enduring it for a fortnight.

Creating and activating the account

Step 1 separated creating an account from activating it. Here is where the difference shows up in practice. Creating the account is the form submission: the publisher now has a record with your address against it. Activating it is whatever the publisher requires before the account is fully usable — commonly clicking a link in an email, sometimes entering a code, occasionally nothing at all.

If the confirmation message has not arrived after a few minutes, check the spam or junk folder before requesting another, and check the address you typed. A message that never arrives is far more often a typing error in the address than a fault at the publisher's end.

Where advertising material describes a path as a single opt-in followed by a download and then creating and activating an account, it is describing exactly this sequence — form, install, confirm. You have now done it deliberately rather than by reflex.

Securing the account properly

A game account is worth stealing. It carries an email address, often a payment method, and whatever has accumulated inside it. Three measures cover almost everything, and all three are free.

A unique password. Unique means used on this account and nowhere else. The reason is simple: when some unrelated service is breached and its passwords are published, the published list is tried against everything. A password manager makes uniqueness effortless, and both Windows and macOS include one in their browsers if you do not want a separate application.

Two-factor authentication, if offered. This asks for a second thing — usually a code from an app on your phone — when signing in from somewhere new. It is the measure that defeats a stolen password. Store the recovery codes the publisher gives you somewhere you can reach if the phone is lost.

A secure email account. Because password resets go to the email address, the email account is the master key to the game account. If it does not have its own unique password and its own second factor, fix that before you worry about anything else.

Settings to change before you play

Five settings are worth finding in any online game before the first session, because each of them is more annoying to discover later.

Graphics quality and resolution. If Step 2 put you between the minimum and recommended columns, start at low or medium and at your screen's normal resolution. A game that runs smoothly at modest settings is more pleasant than one that looks better and stutters. You can raise it later.

Frame rate limit or vertical sync. On an older machine, capping the frame rate often produces a steadier result than letting it run free, and it reduces fan noise and heat.

Volume, and especially voice chat. Many online games default to open voice communication with strangers. Decide whether you want that before you are in it, not during.

Chat and social settings. Look for options to limit who can message you and who can see your activity. If anyone under 18 uses the account, the eSafety Commissioner publishes guidance on what these controls typically offer and how to talk about them at home.

Anything that spends money. If the game has a store, find out now whether a payment method is saved and whether a purchase can be made without a confirmation step. Step 5 goes into this properly.

These are described in general terms because they appear, under slightly different names, in nearly every game in this category. Where exactly a particular game puts them is a question for that game's own settings menu and its support pages.

If it does not start

Four causes account for most first-night failures, in roughly this order. The graphics driver is old — both major graphics vendors publish updates, and installing the current one from the vendor's own site fixes a surprising share of problems. The disk filled up during the update. Security software is holding the client back, which is worth checking before concluding the game is broken. Or the download was interrupted and the client needs to verify or repair its own files, which most launchers offer as an option.

If none of those is it, the publisher's support pages are the next stop, and they are also the only place with answers specific to that game. Describe the fault plainly, including the operating system and hardware figures you wrote down in Step 2 — having them ready is the reason you wrote them down.

The household we follow

Our hypothetical household starts the installer at six in the evening, goes out, and comes back to find the client installed and the first update two-thirds through. They finish it before bed. The next evening they create the account on the shared email address, find the confirmation message in the junk folder, activate it, and switch on two-step sign-in, writing the recovery codes in the same note they have been using since Step 1.

They set graphics to medium because of the memory figure from Step 2, turn voice chat off, and play for twenty minutes. One thing is noted: the fans get loud. That is a frame-rate cap away from being solved, and they solve it the following night rather than living with it.

The example product

For the product this course uses as its example — an online game published for Windows and Mac desktops — the client, the account form and the support pages all live on the vendor's own site. The network that promotes it describes the path as a single opt-in, a download, then creating and activating an account, which is the sequence set out above. Everything else about the installation is for the vendor's documentation to say, not this page.

Visit the World of Warships websitePaid affiliate link. This site receives a commission if an account is created and activated after following it. There is no extra cost to you, and the commission had no part in writing this step. Full disclosure.