Registry card · Unit 00
A five-step course for Australians opening their first online PC game account
This is a plain workbook about the kind of free-to-join team game you play on a desktop computer: what it costs over a year, whether your machine will run it, what you agree to when you register, and how to keep it in proportion afterwards.
Reading all five steps takes about seventy minutes. The checklists at the end of each step take another hour or two, spread over a week at whatever pace suits you.
How this site is paid for
Mutelocus carries paid affiliate links. One game, World of Tanks, is used as the worked example of a desktop team game, and the links to it are affiliate links. If you follow one and then create and activate an account, Haubergson Invest s.r.o. is paid a commission by the affiliate network that operates the link. You pay nothing extra. The commission does not decide what the five steps say or which cautions they contain, and you can finish the whole course without following the link once. Full detail is on our Affiliate Disclosure page.
Unit 00-1
The five steps, in order
- What "free to play" actually costs — where the money is in a game that charges nothing to join.
- Will your desktop run it — reading your own machine against a published requirement.
- Reading the account, privacy and purchase terms — four clauses worth finding before you register.
- Creating and activating an account — a careful sign-up and the settings to fix straight away.
- Time, money and house rules — annual spend, play time, shared computers, children at home.
Take them in order the first time: step 4 assumes step 3, and step 5 assumes step 1.
Unit 00-2
Who this course is for, and who it is not for
It is for an adult in Australia with a desktop or laptop computer who wants to understand the deal before registering anywhere. No prior knowledge is assumed, and nothing has to be installed to follow along.
It is not for people who already play these games. It does not cover strategy or hardware building, and it skips console and phone games, because the example game runs on desktop computers only: Windows, macOS and Linux. If your only device is a phone, steps 1 to 3 still help, but step 4 will not apply.
Unit 00-3
What you will be able to do after each step
After step 1 you can explain how a game that charges nothing to join makes money. After step 2 you can read your computer's specifications against a requirement table. After step 3 you can open a long terms page and go straight to the parts that matter. After step 4 you have a working account with the extra sign-in check on. After step 5 you have a yearly figure in writing.
Unit 00-4
The one checklist to do before anything else
If you do one thing from this site before going further, do this. Fifteen minutes here prevents most of the trouble the rest of the course describes.
- Write down which computer you intend to play on, and whether anyone else uses it.
- Find that computer's operating system and version: Windows, macOS or Linux.
- Check the free space on the drive where programs are installed, in gigabytes.
- Decide, in writing, the most in Australian dollars you will spend on this over twelve months. Zero is a valid answer.
- Decide which email address you will use for game accounts, and confirm you can still sign in to it.
- If children share the computer, agree with the other adults who may register for what.
Unit 00-5
A worked example: one household, five steps
A hypothetical household runs through the course as an illustration. It is invented, not a real family: two adults sharing one five-year-old desktop, with a niece who visits at weekends. They work out where money could leave the household, find the graphics hardware older than the published requirement, read a terms page together, register one account, then agree a yearly figure and a rule for the weekend visitor. The example never reports a result from any product; it is a teaching device.
Unit 00-6
What you can do without spending anything
All five steps are free to work through. Checking your hardware uses tools built into your operating system. Reading a publisher's terms and privacy pages costs nothing. Joining a free-to-join game costs nothing at the point of registration, which is what the phrase means and all it means. The Australian government resources below are free and none asks you to register.
Unit 00-7
Where World of Tanks appears, and why
A course about registering for a game needs a concrete example. World of Tanks is that example: an online multiplayer tank game played in teams against other players on desktop computers. We describe it; we do not speak for it. Everything stated here about the game comes from what its affiliate programme publishes — which is that the programme pays a commission when somebody creates and activates an account. What the game itself costs, if anything, is not something that source states, so check the game's own website. It appears in steps 1 and 4, and its links are paid links, marked every time.
Unit 00-8
Official Australian help
These are the bodies worth knowing before you register for anything online in Australia, described here only as what they are.
- Australian Cyber Security Centre — the federal government's cyber security agency, publishing guidance for individuals.
- Scamwatch — run by the National Anti-Scam Centre; collects scam reports and publishes warnings.
- eSafety Commissioner — Australia's online safety regulator, with material on gaming and families.
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner — the national privacy regulator.
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission — the competition and consumer law regulator.
- Australian Classification Board — classifies computer games sold or hired in Australia.
Unit 00-9
How this course is written and kept current
Each step assumes only what the one before it established. Claims about Australian law and regulators point to the responsible body's own page; claims about the example game come only from its affiliate programme; the rest is general guidance about the category. The course is reviewed twice a year, and the review date sits in every footer. The editorial method, including the commercial relationship behind the example, is on the About page.
Unit 00-10
Questions people ask before they start
Do I have to finish the course in one sitting?
No. Each step ends with a checklist, so you can stop after any step and pick it up weeks later. Nothing here remembers where you stopped, so keep your own note or print the checklists page.
Do I need to buy anything to finish the course?
No. Every step can be done with a desktop computer you already own and a browser. One product is mentioned and its link is a paid affiliate link, but no step depends on you following it.
Is this an official site for any game?
No. Mutelocus is published by Haubergson Invest s.r.o. It is not an official, authorised or partner site for any game or publisher, and no publisher has reviewed, endorsed or sponsored it.
Will my account details be stored on this site?
There is nothing here to store them in: no forms, no accounts, no newsletter, no cookies. The only record of your visit is the access log our hosting provider keeps for 30 days.
Before you move on. Start with step 1. If you would rather see the whole workbook first, every checklist is gathered on the All checklists page, laid out to print cleanly on white paper.