Step 2 — Working out what your computer and connection can handle

It is tempting to create the account first, since that part is quick and the download can run while you make dinner. The order in this course is deliberate: if your computer cannot run the game, an account you cannot use is simply a record of your email address sitting on someone's server for no benefit.

There is also a practical reason. Checking hardware takes ten minutes and needs nothing but the computer you already have. Undoing an account takes an email, a wait, and sometimes a form. Do the cheap, reversible thing first.

A specification sheet can list a dozen things. For a first decision, five of them carry nearly all the weight.

Notice what is not on that list: the age of the computer. A five-year-old desktop with a dedicated graphics card can be a better candidate than a two-year-old laptop without one.

One term worth defining now. A dedicated or discrete graphics card is a separate component with its own memory. Integrated graphics are built into the processor and share the computer's main memory. Both will run many things perfectly well; 3D games are the main place where the difference shows.

Nothing here requires a download, and nothing here changes a setting. These are read-only lookups using tools already on the computer.

On Windows

1. Open Settings, then System, then About. Write down the edition, the version, the installed memory in gigabytes, and the processor name as it appears. Note whether it says 64-bit.
2. For the graphics card, open the Start menu, type Device Manager, open it, and expand Display adapters. The entry there is your graphics hardware. If there are two entries, the one that is not part of the processor name is the dedicated card.
3. For drive space, open File Explorer and select This PC. The bar under each drive shows free space; note the figure for the drive where programs are installed, usually C:.
4. Write all of it on one piece of paper. You will compare it against a requirements list in a moment, and holding five numbers in your head while reading a web page is how mistakes happen.

On a Linux desktop

1. Most desktop environments have a Settings → About panel showing the distribution, version, memory, processor and graphics. Start there.
2. If you prefer a terminal, lsb_release -a reports the distribution and version, free -h reports memory, lscpu reports the processor and df -h reports free space per drive.
3. For graphics, lspci | grep -i vga lists the display hardware. Note the manufacturer and model, and note which driver you are using if the panel tells you — on Linux the driver is more often the thing that decides whether a game runs well.

If you are using a Mac, the equivalent information is under the Apple menu, in About This Mac — but see the operating-system section below, because for the example offer in this course that is where a Mac stops.

Published requirements usually come in two columns: minimum and recommended. The useful translation is this. Minimum means the publisher expects the game to start and be playable at low settings. Recommended means the publisher expects a comfortable experience at ordinary settings. Neither is a guarantee, and both are the publisher's own estimate rather than an independent measurement.

Three habits make the comparison honest:

• Compare like with like. The graphics card named in a requirements list is a specific model. A card with a bigger number in its name is not automatically newer or faster, because manufacturers reuse number ranges across generations. If you are unsure, look up both model names on the manufacturer's own site.
• Treat "or better" as the publisher's words, not a measurement. It is a reasonable shorthand, but it leaves the decision with you.
• Add headroom to drive space. If a game lists a download size, plan for noticeably more over the following year. Updates accumulate, and a full drive causes problems that look like faults in the game.

If your hardware sits between minimum and recommended, the honest expectation is: it will probably run, you will probably reduce some settings, and you will find out properly in Step 4. If your hardware is below the stated minimum in two or more of the five items, the realistic answer is that this is not the game for this computer.

Of the five items, the operating system is categorical. A fast machine running an unsupported system is still an unsupported machine. There is no setting to lower.

This matters in Australian households more than you might expect, because a laptop bought for work and a desktop bought for home are often different platforms, and the household's best hardware is not always the supported one. The offer behind the links in this course is a clear case: it applies to desktop Windows and Linux computers, and it does not cover macOS. If the only machine available is a Mac, Step 2 is the end of the course for that machine, and nothing later in the course changes that.

Two further notes, phrased as general guidance rather than claims about any particular title. Some publishers support a game on Linux directly; others support it only through a compatibility layer, and some actively do not support it at all because of how their anti-cheat system works. And a 32-bit installation of Windows will not run a 64-bit game, which is one reason the "About" panel is worth reading carefully rather than skimming.

For an online game, two properties of your internet connection matter and they are not the same thing.

Speed is how much data arrives per second. It decides how long the initial download takes and how long updates take. A large download on a slow connection is an inconvenience measured in hours, not a reason the game will play badly.

Latency is how long a single message takes to travel to the server and back, usually quoted in milliseconds. It decides how responsive an online match feels. For players in Australia, latency depends heavily on where the game's servers are: a service with servers in or near this region behaves differently from one whose nearest servers are on another continent. Publishers do not always state server locations, and where a publisher does not state it, we do not guess.

A third factor is the local network in your own home. A connection shared with other people streaming video in the evening behaves differently from the same connection at ten in the morning, and a cable from the computer to the router behaves differently from a wireless link across a brick wall. Step 4 uses this: it asks you to judge the game on a quiet evening, not during the household's busiest hour.

If you want general, non-commercial material on keeping a home connection and its devices in good order, the Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes guidance for individuals and families.

The hypothetical share house from the overview has two computers: a four-year-old Windows desktop and a MacBook used for work. This step resolves most of their question in about fifteen minutes.

The MacBook is out, not because it is slow but because the offer does not cover macOS. That takes thirty seconds and removes an entire branch of the conversation.

On the desktop they open Settings, System, About, and write down the Windows edition, 16 GB of memory, a 64-bit installation and the processor name. Device Manager shows two display adapters, so they note the dedicated card's model. File Explorer shows about 90 GB free on the C: drive. They now have one piece of paper with five answers on it.

They compare that paper against the requirements published on the game's current pages. The graphics card is the one they have to look up by model name rather than eyeball. Their conclusion is "between minimum and recommended, probably fine at reduced settings", which is a perfectly good place to be, and they stop there instead of speculating further.

You should now have five written-down facts about your own machine and a clear yes, no or probably against the game's published requirements. If the answer is no on the operating system, the course has done its job for you and there is no need to continue to Step 3.

If the answer is yes or probably, keep the paper. Step 4 compares the first session against it, and that comparison is how you tell a hardware limit from a connection problem.