CH 01

Step 1 — What an online PC game actually is

Step 1 of 5

Before you decide whether to install anything, it helps to know what kind of object you are dealing with. A modern online game on a computer is not one thing; it is a program on your machine, an account held somewhere else, a connection between the two, and a business model that decides what you are asked for along the way. This step takes those apart one at a time.

LOG 01-1 // 02:05

The three pieces: client, account, server

The first piece is the client. That is the program that lives on your own computer — the thing you install and the thing you open. It draws the picture on your screen, reads your keyboard and mouse, and plays the sound. It is ordinary software, and like any other software it takes up space on your drive and demands a certain amount of your machine's capability to run smoothly.

The second piece is the account. In an online game, the record of who you are, what you own in the game and what you have done is not kept on your computer. It is kept on the publisher's systems and is tied to an account, which is usually identified by an email address. This is why a game that costs nothing still asks you to register: without an account there is nowhere to keep your side of the game, and no way for the game to know it is you when you come back on a different machine.

The third piece is the server. In a multiplayer game, the authoritative version of what is happening — where everyone is, who did what first — runs on a computer the publisher operates, not on yours. Your client sends what you did, the server decides what that means, and your client is told the result. Everything that frustrates people about online play comes from that round trip, and Step 5 deals with it properly.

Keeping these three apart makes a lot of confusing advice legible. "The game is down" usually means the server. "The game crashes on my machine" usually means the client. "I cannot get in" usually means the account.

LOG 01-2 // 02:21

The three ways a game is paid for

Almost every computer game you will meet is paid for in one of three ways, and knowing which one you are looking at tells you most of what you need to know about what will be asked of you later.

Paid once, upfront. You buy the game, you own a licence to play it, and that is the transaction. There may be later paid add-ons, but the basic arrangement is the familiar one: money now, product now.

Subscription. You pay a recurring amount — monthly or yearly — and while the subscription is active you can play. If you stop paying, access stops. This model is less common for individual games than it used to be and more common for services that bundle many games together.

No charge to install, optional purchases inside. The game is offered at no cost to download and start. Revenue comes from things bought inside it: cosmetic items, convenience items, additional content, or a seasonal pass that releases rewards over a period. This is the model most online multiplayer games now use, and it is the one that needs the most care, because the decision to spend is not made once at the shop counter but repeatedly, inside the product, while you are enjoying yourself.

None of these is dishonest in itself. The point is to identify which one you are in before you start, so that nothing that happens later is a surprise.

LOG 01-3 // 02:38

What "free to play" covers, and what it does not

"Free to play" is a label the industry uses for the third model above. Read literally, it means you can install and play without paying. That literal meaning is usually accurate. What it does not mean is that money will never come up.

In practice, a game described that way will normally contain a shop, some form of in-game currency bought with real money, and items you can obtain either by playing for a long time or by paying to skip that time. It may also contain a seasonal pass: a set of rewards that become available as you play, with a paid version that opens up more of them. Step 4 goes through these structures in detail, including randomised items, which deserve their own treatment.

There is a second thing the label does not cover: your data. An account means an email address, and often a username, a date of birth and a record of what you do in the game. That is not sinister, but it is part of what you are exchanging, and it is worth reading the publisher's own privacy notice before you decide. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner publishes general guidance on how personal information should be handled and what your rights over it are.

A practical rule: when a game describes itself as free, assume the model and look for the shop. If you find it in the first ten minutes, nothing has gone wrong. If you cannot find it at all, you may be looking at a paid-once game with a trial.

LOG 01-4 // 02:55

Launchers, stores and why a game wants your email address

Most computer games are not installed the way a phone app is. They usually arrive through one of two routes. The first is a store or platform — a program you install once, which keeps a library of games, downloads them, and updates them. The second is a launcher published by the game's own developer, which does the same job for that developer's titles only. Some games are available both ways, in which case you choose; the game itself is the same either way, but the account you use may differ.

Either route involves an account, and the account is usually identified by an email address that you are asked to confirm. The confirmation step exists for a few reasons at once: it proves the address works, so the publisher can reach you about the account; it reduces the number of fake accounts created automatically; and it gives you a route back in if you forget your password. Step 3 is devoted to this process, because it is the point at which most new players either get stuck or make a decision they regret later.

One general piece of advice that applies to every category: install from the publisher's own site or from a well-known platform, and not from a search result that merely looks official. Australia's Scamwatch service describes the patterns used by sites that imitate real brands, and the gaming version of that pattern is a page offering a popular title that asks for something the real publisher never asks for.

LOG 01-5 // 03:14

A short glossary

Client

The program installed on your own computer that you open to play.

Server

The publisher's computer that runs the authoritative version of a multiplayer match.

Launcher

A small program that signs you in, downloads updates and starts the game.

Client update or patch

A download that changes the game after release, to fix problems or add content.

FPS, two meanings

As a genre, a first-person shooter: you see the world through your character's eyes. As a measurement, frames per second: how many images your computer draws each second. Context tells you which is meant.

Ping or latency

The time, in milliseconds, for a message to travel from your computer to the server and back.

Matchmaking

The system that gathers players into a match, usually trying to balance skill and connection quality.

In-game currency

Points or tokens used inside the game, sometimes earned by playing and sometimes bought with real money.

Season or battle pass

A set of rewards released over a fixed period and earned by playing, often with a paid tier.

Cosmetic item

Something that changes how a character or object looks without changing how it performs.

LOG 01-6 // 03:32

The example used in this course

Where this course needs a concrete title rather than an abstraction, it uses Enlisted. According to the affiliate network that pays this site, Enlisted is a new game set in the atmosphere of the Second World War, and it runs on desktop computers — Windows, macOS and Linux. It is not listed for phones, tablets or consoles.

That is the extent of what we have been told, and we are not going to extend it. We do not state what the game costs, what it contains, how large the download is or what hardware it needs, because the vendor has not told us and inventing it would be worse than useless. Those facts are on the vendor's own site, and checking them there is exactly the habit Step 2 is trying to build.

We name this title rather than another because we are paid a commission when a reader registers and confirms their email address through our link. That is the whole reason, stated plainly, and it is the same reason you should treat the choice of example as a choice about teaching material rather than a recommendation.

Visit the Enlisted website Paid link. Gray Tempo is paid a commission if you register and confirm your email address after following it. What you pay, if anything, is unchanged.

LOG 01-7 // 03:48

Before you move on

Step 2 moves from vocabulary to your own machine. You cannot sensibly choose between games until you know what yours can run, and finding that out is a fifteen-minute job you only have to do once.

LOG 01-8 // 04:02

Checklist 1 — Understanding what you are looking at