Calm Trait

Calm Trait · beginners' workbook

All the checklists, on one page

Every checklist from the five steps, in order, set to print cleanly on white paper. Nothing on this page is interactive: the boxes are printed marks, not controls, and nothing you tick is remembered, because this site stores nothing in your browser.

How to use these

The checklists are the working part of the course. Each step page explains why its items exist; this page is what you keep afterwards. The intended use is on paper, with a pen, beside the computer — partly because a printed list does not compete with the screen for attention, and partly because several of the items ask you to write a number down and then compare it to something else half an hour later.

Work top to bottom. The order is not decorative: the preparation list has to come first because the later lists assume you know which operating system you are on and which email address you will use, and the spending list has to come before installation because setting a limit is much easier before a game is in front of you offering things.

You will not need all five lists every time. Once you have done the hardware list in Step 2, the result keeps: a computer's processor and graphics do not change. On a second game, months later, you will usually need only the reading list, the classification and spending list, and a glance at free disk space. That is roughly fifteen minutes rather than an evening.

Items you cannot complete are information rather than failure. If a publisher does not state its requirements, if no classification decision appears, or if you cannot find the account closure instructions, leave the box empty and note why beside it. Three empty boxes in a row tells you something useful about the publisher before you have installed anything.

Keep the filled-in sheet somewhere you will find it — with the computer's documents, or photographed and filed. The two things most worth keeping are the five hardware facts from Step 2 and the monthly spending limit from Step 4. Everything else you can redo in minutes; those two are the ones people forget and have to work out again.

If you are doing this for somebody else in the house, go through the lists with them rather than for them. The items are written to be understandable by somebody who has never done any of it, which is the point of the whole course, and a person who has filled in their own sheet knows where their own limit came from.

Before you start

From the course overview. Five minutes, nothing installed.

  1. Write down which operating system this computer runs — macOS, Windows or a Linux distribution — with its version number.
  2. Confirm you can sign in to the email account you intend to use, on this computer, right now.
  3. Write down the free space on the main drive, in gigabytes.
  4. Decide the most you would spend inside a game in a month, in Australian dollars, even if the answer is zero.
  5. Note whose user account you will be using, if the computer is shared.

Step 1 — Reading the game's own page

From Step 1. Do this with the publisher page open.

  1. Write down the exact name of the game and the name of the company publishing it.
  2. Find and write down what the game costs to download.
  3. Find and write down whether the game sells anything inside itself, and roughly what kind of thing.
  4. Find the supported operating systems and note whether yours is listed.
  5. Find the minimum and recommended specifications and copy them down, even if they mean nothing to you yet.
  6. Find a support or contact route for the publisher and note it.
  7. Note whether the game requires a separate storefront program, or installs on its own.
  8. Write one sentence saying what you still do not understand. Carry it into Step 2.

Step 2 — Measuring your computer

From Step 2. Keep this one; it stays true.

  1. Open your system information panel and leave it visible while you work.
  2. Write down the operating system, its version, and whether it is 64-bit.
  3. Write down the processor line in full, model number included.
  4. Write down the installed memory in gigabytes.
  5. Write down the graphics hardware, and note whether it is integrated or a separate card.
  6. Write down the free space on the drive where programs install.
  7. Copy the publisher's minimum and recommended lists beside your five facts.
  8. Mark each row: above, equal, or below.
  9. Write a one-line verdict in your own words.
  10. Check whether your internet connection is metered, and note the download size.

Step 3 — Registering and confirming

From Step 3.

  1. Decide which email address the account will use, and confirm you can read it on this computer.
  2. Choose a display name that reveals nothing about who or where you are.
  3. Create a password used on no other site, and record it in a password manager or somewhere safe off the computer.
  4. Answer the date of birth honestly.
  5. Set the country to Australia if that is where you are.
  6. Read the marketing tick box and set it the way you actually want it.
  7. Open the confirmation message, check the link destination is the publisher's own domain, then open it.
  8. If no message arrives in ten minutes, check the junk folder before doing anything else.
  9. Turn on two-factor authentication if the publisher offers it.
  10. Find and bookmark the publisher's refund terms and its account closure instructions.

Step 4 — Classification and spending

From Step 4. Do this before installing, not after.

  1. Search the Classification Board database for the exact game title and write down the result.
  2. Read the consumer advice attached to the decision, not only the category.
  3. Write your monthly spending limit in Australian dollars, even if it is zero.
  4. Decide whether a payment card will be stored on the account. Prefer not.
  5. Find the storefront or publisher's spending controls and set them.
  6. Turn on bank purchase notifications if your bank offers them.
  7. If anyone under 18 uses this computer, give them their own user account.
  8. Set the game's chat and contact settings before the first session rather than during it.
  9. Note the date you will check the bank statement, and put it in a calendar.
  10. Write down your position on randomised items before you meet one.

Step 5 — First session and afterwards

From Step 5.

  1. Start the download at a time when it can take as long as it takes.
  2. Check free disk space again before installing, allowing more than the stated size.
  3. Allow the game through the firewall for your home network when asked.
  4. Set graphics to the lowest preset, in a window, for the first session.
  5. Set the audio level and decide whether the microphone is on.
  6. Find the mute, block and report controls before you play.
  7. Decide your stopping point and set a timer outside the game.
  8. Close the program when you stop, rather than minimising it.
  9. Put a monthly statement check in your calendar.
  10. If you decide against the game: uninstall it, remove the storefront if unused, and close or secure the account.

— checklists end — keep the sheet —