Step 4 — Creating and activating an account

Unit 04-1
"Create" and "activate" are two different events

Creating an account is submitting the form. Activating it is proving that the email address you gave is one you can actually open, usually by following a link sent to it. Plenty of people do the first and not the second, then wonder why they cannot sign in a week later.

The distinction matters for a second reason, which this site should be straightforward about: the affiliate arrangement behind this course pays a commission when somebody creates and activates an account. That is the published basis of the programme. We are telling you that here, in the step where it is relevant, rather than leaving you to work it out.

Everything below is written generally, for the category. Different publishers lay their forms out differently, and a walkthrough of one company's screens would be out of date within a year and useless for any other game.

Unit 04-2
Three decisions to make before the form

Which email address. This becomes your identity for the account and the only route back in if you forget the password. Use one you will still control in five years. Using a separate address for games is reasonable if you will genuinely keep checking it; an address you abandon is worse than the one you use daily.

What password. A long passphrase used nowhere else. The reason for "nowhere else" is that if another service you use is ever breached, a reused password hands over this account too. Let the browser's built-in password manager or your operating system's keychain store it; both are free and already installed. The Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes guidance on passphrases and on multi-factor authentication, and it is worth ten minutes of your time.

What name you will show. Many games display a public name to other players. Choose one that is not your real full name, not your email address, and not reused from an account where you are identifiable. This is the cheapest privacy decision available and it cannot easily be undone later.

Unit 04-3
The sign-up procedure

1. Reach the publisher's own site. Type the address yourself or follow a link you have reason to trust, then look at the address bar before you type anything. A registration form on an address you do not recognise is a reason to stop.
2. Check it is the registration page, not a reseller. Accounts for these games come from the publisher. A page offering to sell you one is a different thing entirely.
3. Fill in only the required fields. They are usually marked. Optional fields — telephone number, extra personal details — can stay empty, and an account that works without them is an account that works without them.
4. Read the consent boxes properly. Some are ticked by default and some are not; some mean marketing email, some mean something else. Set each to what you actually want. This is the one place on the form where going slowly pays.
5. Note the country and currency. If the form asks for a region, the answer determines the currency you would be charged in later. From Australia, that should be AUD unless you have a reason otherwise.
6. Submit, then go straight to your mailbox. Do not close the browser tab until activation is done; some publishers show a code or a next instruction on the page.

Unit 04-4
The activation email, and the ones that imitate it

A genuine activation email arrives within a few minutes, comes from the publisher's own domain, and asks you to do exactly one thing: confirm the address. It does not ask for your password. It does not ask for payment details. It does not tell you your account is at risk.

Registering for a new service is a moment when fraudulent messages are unusually effective, because you are expecting an email and are primed to click. Three habits reduce the risk to nearly nothing. Open the mailbox yourself rather than through a link in another message. Look at the sender's full address, not the display name. If a message that claims to come from the publisher asks for a password or a card, do not reply to it — go to the site directly instead.

If you receive something that looks like an attempt to deceive, Scamwatch is where it can be reported in Australia, and the Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes advice on recognising this kind of message. Nothing on this page suggests anything has happened to you; this is ordinary preparation, the same as knowing where the fire exit is.

Unit 04-5
The first ten minutes of settings

Once the account is active, go through the settings once, deliberately, before you play. It is far easier now than after you have forgotten which screens exist.

Turn on the extra sign-in check. Two-factor authentication means that a password alone is not enough to get in. Where it is offered, turn it on, and write the recovery codes somewhere that is not the computer — a piece of paper in a drawer is a perfectly good answer.

Set who can see and contact you. Profile visibility, friend requests, messages from strangers. Decide each one rather than accepting defaults.

Set purchase confirmation. If there is an option requiring a password or a code before a purchase completes, turn it on. On a shared computer this is the single most useful setting in the account.

Check the marketing preferences again. What you set on the form and what is set in the account are occasionally different. Look once.

Write down the recovery path. Which email address, where the recovery codes are, and how to close the account — the answer you found in step 3.

Unit 04-6
Where the example game sits

World of Tanks is the example used throughout this course: an online multiplayer game in which players take part in team battles against other players, on desktop computers running Windows, macOS or Linux. Its affiliate programme publishes one thing we rely on — that a commission is paid when somebody creates and activates an account. Anything else about the product, including what it costs and how its own sign-up screens are arranged, comes from the vendor and not from us; where the vendor does not state something, we leave it unstated.

If you want to look at it for yourself, the link below goes to the game's own site. Use the procedure above when you get there, not a different one because the link came from here.

Visit the World of Tanks website

Paid link. If you follow it and then create and activate an account, Haubergson Invest s.r.o. is paid a commission by the affiliate network that operates the link. It costs you nothing, it does not change anything about the account you get, and this step is complete whether or not you use it.

Unit 04-7
The worked example household

One adult in the hypothetical household registers. They use the email address they check daily rather than an old one, let the browser store a long passphrase, and choose a display name unrelated to either of their real names.

On the form they leave the telephone field empty and untick the marketing box. The activation email arrives in two minutes; they check the sender address before following the link. In settings they turn on two-factor authentication, write the recovery codes on a card in the kitchen drawer, set profile visibility to the most restricted option they can still play with, and turn on purchase confirmation because the niece uses the same computer. Total time, including the reading: twenty-two minutes. No outcome from playing is reported here, because this household is an illustration.

Unit 04-8
Step 4 specification

Unit 04-9
Checklist for step 4

• Confirm you can sign in to the email address you intend to use.
• Prepare a long passphrase used on no other service, and decide where it will be stored.
• Choose a public display name that does not identify you.
• Reach the registration page through the publisher's own site and check the address bar.
• Complete only the required fields; leave optional personal details empty.
• Read every consent box and set each one deliberately.
• Check that the region and currency are the ones you intend.
• Open your mailbox directly and verify the sender of the activation email.
• Follow the activation link and confirm the account is active.
• Turn on two-factor authentication and store the recovery codes off the computer.
• Set profile visibility and who may contact you.
• Turn on purchase confirmation, especially if the computer is shared.
• Re-check marketing preferences inside the account.
• Write down the recovery path and how to close the account.