Step 3 of 5

Step 3 — Classification, age ratings and money inside the game

This step covers the two questions a household usually asks once the hardware question is settled: is this title suitable for the person who will be playing it, and how does money leave the house after the installation is finished? Both have Australian answers, and both are easier to settle before an account exists than after.

Who classifies computer games in Australia

Australia does not rely on the publisher's own opinion of who a game suits. Computer games offered for sale or hire here are classified under a national scheme, and the body that applies it is the Australian Classification Board. Its site, classification.gov.au, explains the categories, publishes the consumer advice that accompanies them, and carries a searchable record of what has been classified.

Two features of the scheme are worth knowing before you look anything up. The first is that the rating comes with consumer advice: a short phrase naming what drove the decision, such as the kind of violence or the presence of in-game purchases. That phrase is often more useful than the letter itself, because it tells you what is actually in the game.

The second is that a classification applies to the version assessed. Large online games change constantly, so the record tells you how the title was assessed, not what was added in last month's patch. Treat it as a reliable floor rather than a current description.

How to look a title up

1. Open classification.gov.au and find the search for classified titles.
2. Search for the exact name of the game, not an abbreviation a friend used.
3. Read the classification and, more importantly, the consumer advice line beneath it.
4. Note whether the consumer advice mentions in-game purchases, and whether it mentions anything your household would want to discuss.
5. Write the category and the consumer advice on your notepad. You will use them in the household conversation below.
6. If a title does not appear, treat that as a question rather than an answer, and check the vendor's own store page for what it says about age suitability in Australia.

What a rating does not tell you

A classification is about content, and it is a good tool for the job. It is not designed to answer three other questions that matter just as much in an online game.

It does not tell you how much time the game wants. Many online titles are built around daily participation, and the pull of a daily reward is not content that any board classifies. That is a household conversation, not a regulatory one.

It does not tell you what other players will say. Classification assesses the game as published; it cannot assess strangers typing in a chat window. This is covered in the next section.

The part no classification covers: other players

Any game with open chat or voice puts your household in contact with strangers. Most encounters are unremarkable. Some are not, and the sensible preparation is to know, before it happens, where the controls are and where to complain.

Nearly every online game provides three tools: a mute or block function that silences an individual, a report function that sends a complaint to the publisher's moderators, and a settings page where chat can be restricted or switched off entirely. Finding all three before the first match takes a few minutes and is worth doing with a younger player rather than for them.

Where a publisher's own process is not enough, Australia has a national regulator for online safety. The eSafety Commissioner provides information for parents, carers and young people and operates complaint schemes for certain kinds of serious online harm. Its site describes what it can and cannot act on, which is the right place to check rather than relying on a summary here.

The usual shapes of in-game spending

Across this part of the market, money inside a game tends to take a small number of recognisable forms. Knowing the shapes makes any particular store understandable in a minute.

Direct purchase of content. You pay a stated amount and receive a specific thing: a vehicle, a mode, a campaign. This is the most transparent form, because the price and the item are both visible before you decide.

Virtual currency. You buy a quantity of an in-game currency with real money, then spend it inside the game. The extra layer makes the real cost harder to feel, and currency is usually sold in bundles that do not divide evenly into item prices, so a small remainder tends to stay in the account.

Time-saving purchases. You pay to progress faster toward something that can also be earned by playing. The value depends entirely on how much you intend to play, which is why it is worth deciding before, not during.

Subscriptions and passes. A recurring charge, or a seasonal pass that grants rewards over a fixed period. Both renew or expire on a schedule, and both deserve a note in your calendar rather than a reliance on memory.

Randomised items and why they need care

Some games sell items whose contents are randomised: you pay a known amount and receive an unknown result from a pool. The mechanic has attracted sustained attention from regulators and parliaments in several countries, including Australia, precisely because of its resemblance to a wager.

This course takes a plain position. A randomised purchase is not a suitable thing for a minor to have access to, and no part of this course presents it as entertainment for children. If a title you are considering includes one, the controls described in the next section should be in place before an account belonging to a young person is used to buy anything.

For the current Australian treatment of these mechanics in classification, the Australian Classification Board is the authority, and its site states how in-game purchases and randomised elements are reflected in consumer advice. Check it there rather than relying on what a forum says.

Setting a household rule that survives contact with reality

A rule that exists only as an intention tends not to hold. A rule that is written down, attached to a mechanism, and reviewed on a date tends to hold well enough. There are four mechanisms available to most households, and they work together.

Separate the payment method from the account. The strongest control is simply not storing a card against a game account. A prepaid card or a gift card, bought for a fixed amount, enforces a ceiling without any argument about trust.

Use the controls your platform already has. Operating systems, app stores and payment providers commonly offer purchase approval, spending limits or password prompts. They are free, they are already installed, and they need to be configured once.

Agree the amount in advance, in Australian dollars. Per month or per year, decided when nobody is excited. Write it next to the figure you chose on the homepage checklist.

Set a review date. Three months is a reasonable first interval. The point of a review is not to catch anyone out but to see what was actually spent against what was agreed.

Your consumer rights in Australia

Buying digital content does not put you outside consumer law. The Australian Consumer Law applies to goods and services supplied to consumers in Australia, including many supplied from overseas, and it provides guarantees that cannot be excluded by a contract term. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission administers it and publishes guidance on what the guarantees mean in practice.

Two things follow for a reader at this step. A refund policy printed by a publisher is a policy, not the limit of your rights, and a statement that no refunds are ever given does not by itself displace a guarantee that applies. If a purchase goes wrong, start with the publisher's own support process, keep the correspondence, and read the ACCC's guidance on where to go next if it is not resolved.

Looking up the title this course names

The example title used throughout this course is War Thunder. Its vendor describes it as a multiplayer war simulator with planes, helicopters, tanks and ships, created and published by Gaijin Entertainment, and offered for desktop and laptop computers running Windows, macOS or Linux. The vendor's description does not state a classification, a price or anything about in-game purchases, so this course does not either.

The following link is a paid affiliate link: if you sign up after following it, LUKREX s.r.o. is paid a commission, at no additional cost to you.

Visit the War Thunder website to read the vendor's own pages on what the game contains. The classification lookup described above is done on the Board's site, not the vendor's, and is the independent half of this check.

The example household at Step 3

Before you move on

Step 4 is the practical one. With the hardware checked and the household rules agreed, it walks through registering an account, confirming it by email, launching for the first time and working through the built-in tutorial.

Checklist for Step 3