Step 4 of 5

Step 4 — Making an account, confirming it and finishing the tutorial

This step is the practical one. It describes, in terms that apply to any title in this category, how to register an account, prove that the email address is yours, install the client without picking up something unwanted along the way, and get through a first tutorial session with the controls making sense.

The instructions are deliberately general. Every publisher arranges its own pages differently and redesigns them regularly, so a walkthrough of one particular interface would be out of date within months. What does not change is the order of the five things that happen, and that is what you are learning here.

The shape of the sign-up, start to finish

Five things happen between deciding to try a title and playing it, and they happen in this order whatever the title.

Knowing the order matters because it tells you when something has gone wrong. If you are being asked to install before you have confirmed an email address, or to pay before you have signed in, you are somewhere unexpected and should stop and check where you are.

Three things to decide before you open the page

The email address. Use one you can open immediately, because a confirmation message is coming. In a household with a young player, Step 1 suggested an address an adult can see; this is the moment that decision pays off.

The display name. This is the name other players see, and in most games it is awkward or impossible to change later. It should not be a real full name, a school name, a date of birth, or anything that identifies where someone lives. Decide it before the form asks, because people invent poor names under time pressure.

The password. Long, used nowhere else, and stored in a password manager or written in a safe place at home. A game account that shares a password with an email account turns one compromise into two. General guidance on choosing and managing passwords for individuals is published by the Australian Cyber Security Centre at cyber.gov.au.

Registering, and what the form will ask

Registration happens on the vendor's website, in your browser, before anything is installed. Before you type anything into a form, look at the address bar and satisfy yourself that you are on the vendor's own domain. Imitation sign-in pages are a common way accounts are taken, and the address bar is the check that catches them.

A typical form asks for an email address, a password, a display name, and a country. Some ask for a date of birth, which is used to apply age-related restrictions. Some add a box to tick for marketing email, which is optional by design; leaving it unticked does not affect your account.

You will also be asked to accept terms of service and a privacy policy. These are the publisher's documents, not this site's, and they govern what happens to your data and what the publisher may do with your account. Skimming the sections on account termination and on refunds takes two minutes and is the part most worth reading.

Confirming the email address

After registration, the publisher sends a message to the address you gave, containing a link. Opening that link proves the address belongs to you and activates the account. Until it is done, the account usually exists in a limited state and may not be able to sign in to the game at all.

Two practical notes. The message sometimes lands in a spam or junk folder, particularly with addresses at smaller providers, so look there before assuming it failed. And confirmation links often expire after a set period; if yours has, the account page normally offers to send a fresh one rather than making you start again.

Open the link from the message itself rather than from any other page claiming to confirm an account for you. The confirmation step is the only part of the sign-up where you follow a link from an email, which makes it the step most worth being careful about.

Securing the account before you install

Do this while the account page is still open, because afterwards you will be busy with a download. Most publishers offer two-factor authentication, which adds a second check — usually a code from an app on your phone — to any sign-in from an unfamiliar device. It is the single most effective protection available for a game account, and it is free wherever it is offered.

Installing the client without collecting extras

Download the launcher from the vendor's own site, from the link shown on your account page after signing in. Downloading a game client from a third-party site is how people acquire software they did not want, and there is never a reason to do it when the publisher offers the file directly.

During installation you will usually be asked where to put the game. Choose the drive you identified in Step 2 as having room, not simply the default, if those differ. Decline any optional extras an installer offers unless you specifically want them; bundled toolbars and companion applications are not required for the game to work.

Then wait. A first installation of a large title is a long download, and the launcher will usually continue fetching content after the main installation appears finished. Starting it in the evening and leaving it is more pleasant than watching it.

The first launch and the settings that matter

Sign in with the account you created and confirmed. Before anything else, open the graphics or video settings and set them low. You can raise them later; starting high and discovering the game stutters leaves you unsure whether the problem is the settings or the machine.

Three other settings are worth visiting in the first five minutes. Set the audio to a sensible level, since many games default to loud. Check the control scheme, which in a vehicle game may offer simplified and realistic options; the simplified one is the sensible starting point. And open the chat or privacy settings and apply whatever decision your household reached in Step 3.

The tutorial, and why to finish it

Most titles in this category include a tutorial: a guided session, usually without other players, that teaches movement, aiming and the interface. It is tempting to skip, and skipping it is the main reason a first real match feels hostile.

Finish it completely rather than partly. A tutorial in a vehicle game typically teaches things that are not guessable, such as how the view changes between modes, how repairs or reloads work, and what the symbols along the edge of the screen mean. Learning those while strangers are shooting at you is a worse experience than learning them in a quiet room.

If the game offers more than one tutorial, or a practice mode against computer-controlled opponents, use those next. A reasonable first evening is the tutorial, then one practice session, and nothing else. There is no clock on any of this; the game will still be there tomorrow.

The whole procedure in order

1. Decide the email address, display name and password before opening any page.
2. Open the vendor's registration page in a browser and check the address bar before typing.
3. Complete the form, decline optional marketing, and read the termination and refund sections of the terms.
4. Open the confirmation message in your email and follow its link to activate the account.
5. Turn on two-factor authentication and read the account recovery page once.
6. Download the launcher from the vendor's own site and install it to the drive you chose in Step 2.
7. Let the download finish, including anything the launcher fetches after installation appears complete.
8. Sign in, set the graphics low, set the audio, choose the simplified control scheme, and apply your chat decision.
9. Launch the built-in tutorial and complete it without skipping.
10. Stop for the evening. Step 5 covers what the following weeks look like.

The following link is a paid affiliate link: if you register through it, LUKREX s.r.o. receives a commission, and your own cost is unchanged.

If the title you are using for this step is the one this course names, you can visit the War Thunder website to begin the registration described above. Its vendor states that registration involves creating an account, confirming the email address and signing in to the game, and that the game runs on desktop and laptop computers under Windows, macOS or Linux. The ten points above apply equally to any other title you choose instead.

The example household at Step 4

Before you move on

Step 5 is about everything after the first evening: patches, the real running cost in Australian dollars, the amount of time these games ask for, and what to do when something goes wrong with a purchase or an account.

Checklist for Step 4