All checklists
Every checklist from the five steps, gathered in order, plus two that only appear here. The page is built to print on white paper: the header, footer and links drop away and the boxes print as empty squares.
How to use these
The boxes are printed shapes, not controls. Clicking one does nothing, and the page deliberately remembers nothing — this site sets no cookies and writes nothing to your browser, which the Cookie Policy explains in detail. If you want a record of what you have done, print the page and use a pen, or copy the lines into a notebook or a text file of your own.
Work through them in order the first time. The lists are cumulative: the platform question in Checklist 2 only makes sense once you have read what free to play means, and the spending rule in Checklist 5 depends on knowing whether the game you are looking at sells randomised items. After that first pass, the lists stop being a sequence and become a reference. Most people end up using two of them repeatedly — Checklist 2, whenever they consider a new title, and Checklist 8, whenever they are about to repeat the exercise from the beginning.
Nothing here has to be finished. There is no score, no completion and no certificate, and leaving half the boxes empty is a legitimate way to use a checklist. A list like this earns its place if it makes you pause at two or three points you would otherwise have walked straight past.
Two of the lists involve other people, and they work better out loud. Checklist 3, about which email address holds the account, and Checklist 5, about money, are both easier as a five-minute conversation at a kitchen table than as a private decision made at the moment a form is on screen. That is the real reason this page prints: a piece of paper on a bench gets read by everyone in a household, and a browser tab does not.
Working through this for a second game rather than a first? Start at Checklist 2 and skip Checklist 1.
Price board
Fill this in with a pen after printing. The right-hand column shows worked arithmetic for a hypothetical household, not any product's prices — the real figures are the ones you write.
| Line | Worked example (AUD) |
|---|---|
| Limit for the first month | $0.00 |
| Limit per month after that | $20.00 |
| The same limit judged per year | $240.00 |
| A $15.00 monthly pass, judged per year | $180.00 |
| Chance-based purchases allowed? | NO |
| Card stored on the account? | NO |
| Who approves a purchase | ONE NAMED ADULT |
| Date this rule was agreed | __ / __ / ____ |
The two annual figures are multiplication, nothing more: a monthly amount times twelve. They are here because a monthly number and an annual number feel completely different, and the annual one is the honest one.
Checklist 1 — Before anything else
From the home page. About ten minutes.
- Write down your operating system and its version — Windows 10, Windows 11, or the name and version of your Linux distribution.
- Write down how much free space the drive you install to has right now, in gigabytes.
- Write down the make and model of your graphics hardware, exactly as the system lists it.
- Check whether your household internet plan has a data allowance, and how much of this month's allowance is left.
- Decide, before you look at any game, what you are willing to spend in the first month. Writing "nothing" is a complete answer.
Checklist 2 — What "free to play" means
From Step 1.
- I can explain in one sentence what "free to play" promises and what it does not.
- I have named the four doors money enters through: cosmetics, convenience, randomised items, passes and subscriptions.
- I have found the vendor's own description of the game I am considering, and read it before any third-party opinion.
- I have checked whether the game sells items that affect how it plays, not only how it looks.
- I have checked whether it sells randomised items, and noted the answer for Step 4.
- I have written down a figure — including zero — for what I am willing to spend in the first month.
- I know whether my household internet plan has a monthly data allowance.
- I have noted which platforms the game supports, and whether mine is one of them.
Checklist 3 — Does your computer qualify
From Step 2.
- I have confirmed the game supports the kind of computer I own, as a yes-or-no answer.
- I have written down my operating system, its version, and whether it is 64-bit.
- I have written down my processor model and the amount of memory installed.
- I have written down my graphics device, and whether it is integrated or dedicated.
- I have written down the free space, in gigabytes, on the drive I would install to.
- I have read the vendor's current requirements list on the vendor's own site.
- I have compared my four numbers against the minimum and the recommended columns.
- I have left storage headroom above the published figure for future patches.
- I know my internet plan's monthly data allowance, or that it has none.
- If I am using a laptop, I have decided to run it on power rather than battery.
Checklist 4 — Accounts and sign-up
From Step 3.
- I have decided which email address the account will use, and why that one.
- I have chosen a display name that contains no real name, school, suburb or birth year.
- I have used a long, unique passphrase that is not reused on any other service.
- I have turned on multi-factor authentication if the account offers it.
- I have read the two tick boxes and know which is required and which is marketing.
- I have skimmed the terms for suspension, account sharing and what happens to purchases.
- I have skimmed the privacy notice for sharing, overseas transfer and how to request deletion.
- I reached the sign-up page from the vendor's own address or an official store listing.
- I confirmed the account from the message in my own inbox, and kept that message.
- I have checked the account's chat and messaging settings before the first session.
Checklist 5 — Classification and spending
From Step 4.
- I have looked up the game in the national classification register by title.
- I have read the consumer advice beside the classification, not only the marking.
- I have checked the store listing's classification as well, and noticed any disagreement.
- I know what one unit of the game's in-game currency costs in Australian dollars.
- I have converted any item I am considering back into AUD before deciding.
- I have judged any repeating purchase as twelve of itself, not one.
- I have found out whether the game sells randomised, chance-based items.
- I have agreed that chance-based purchases are not made by anyone under 18 in this household.
- No payment card is stored on the game account.
- Family or store-level purchase approval is switched on where the machine is shared.
- The household rule is written down in two sentences, with a number in it.
Checklist 6 — First sessions and settings
From Step 5.
- I opened the settings menu before playing for the first time.
- Resolution matches my monitor and the quality preset starts low.
- Master volume is turned down before the first launch.
- Chat, messaging and profile visibility are set the way this household wants them.
- I know how to pause, mute and quit without searching for it.
- I know where muting, blocking and reporting live in this game.
- I decided a finishing time before starting, and set a timer outside the game.
- The screen, chair and lighting are set up so an hour is comfortable.
- My connection is marked as metered if my plan has a data allowance.
- I have given the game three sessions before deciding whether it suits me.
- If I stopped: I uninstalled it, and I know the account and its email address still exist.
Checklist 7 — The one-month review
Only on this page. Do it four weeks after the first session.
- I have checked the bank or card statement for any charge I did not expect.
- I have compared what was actually spent against the figure on the price board.
- I have checked how much disk space the installation now occupies, after a month of patches.
- I have checked how much of the monthly data allowance the game and its updates account for.
- Everyone in the household still agrees with the written rule, or we have rewritten it together.
- The finishing-time habit is still being kept, or we have changed the time deliberately.
- Nobody has reused the account password anywhere else since sign-up.
- I still want to be playing this. If not, see Checklist 8.
Checklist 8 — Stopping, or starting again with a different game
Only on this page.
- I have uninstalled through the operating system's apps list or the launcher's own uninstall option.
- I have confirmed the disk space was actually reclaimed.
- I have noted that the account still exists, and which email address holds it.
- If I want the account removed, I have found the deletion process in the vendor's privacy notice or support pages.
- I have removed any stored payment method from the account before leaving it dormant.
- I have kept my four machine numbers, so the next game can be checked in two minutes rather than ten.
- For a new title, I am starting again at Checklist 2 rather than at the download button.
Calmspan — Bounty Gastro s.r.o., Masarykovo nám. 1346/15, 790 01 Jeseník, Czech Republic. Company registration: 03037363. info@calmspan.online. Course content last reviewed: 15 October 2026.