Field ledger — opening page.
A five-step course for Australians trying a desktop collection RPG for the first time
STEPS 05 · READ 70 min · COST AUD 0.00
This course is for a reader in Australia who has heard of free-to-play collection role-playing games on a desktop computer, has never installed one, and wants to understand what is involved before deciding anything. It covers the type of game, the hardware, the paperwork, the setup, and the first few weeks.
Reading it end to end takes about seventy minutes. Most people do better spreading it across a few sittings, one step at a time, with each checklist done before moving on.
How this site pays for itself. Some links on Softprism Online go to the sign-up page of a game called Raid: Shadow Legends. Those are paid affiliate links: if you register and install through one, the company that publishes this site is paid a commission by the affiliate network that operates the link. You pay nothing extra, and nothing on the link's destination changes because you arrived from here.
The commission does not decide what the five steps say, which checks they recommend, or which products get a mention. You can read every page, do every checklist, and finish the course without clicking any of those links or spending a cent. Our funding page sets this out in full.
The five steps
- Step 1 — What a collection RPG is, and what it asks of you. The shape of the genre, the words it uses, and the two currencies every one of them runs on.
- Step 2 — Working out whether your desktop computer can run it. Where to find your own specifications on Windows, macOS and Linux, and how to compare them to a published requirement.
- Step 3 — Reading the classification, the terms and the purchase information. What the Australian classification markings mean, and which three documents are worth opening before you register.
- Step 4 — Registering, installing and the first session. A general procedure that works for any desktop title, with the checks that catch a bad download.
- Step 5 — Settling in: time, money, account safety, and leaving well. The habits that keep a long game pleasant, and how to stop cleanly if you want to.
Every step ends in a checklist. All five are gathered on one page that prints cleanly on white paper.
Who this is for, and who it is not for
It is written for an adult in Australia who owns or shares a desktop or laptop computer and would like the plain version of a genre they have only seen advertised. It assumes you know how to open a web browser and nothing beyond that.
It is not for someone who already plays these games and wants tactics or tier rankings; there is none of that here. It is not a review and it ranks nothing. It is not a parent's guide either, although Step 3 shows where the Classification Board's own material is, which is the right starting point if you are setting a computer up for someone younger.
What you will be able to do when you finish
After Steps 1 and 2 you will be able to read a description of one of these games and work out what it is actually offering, and you will know your own machine's processor, memory, storage and graphics well enough to compare them to any published requirement without help.
After Steps 3 and 4 you will be able to find a game's Australian classification and its consumer information, tell a description apart from a term of a contract, and install from the right place with the checks that catch the common problems. Step 5 leaves you with a written time and money limit, and a method for stopping cleanly.
The one checklist to do before anything else
Do this before reading about any particular game. It takes ten minutes and makes the rest of the course concrete.
- Write down whether the computer you would use is a desktop tower, an all-in-one or a laptop, and whether it runs Windows, macOS or a Linux distribution.
- Write down whether it is yours alone or shared with other people in the household.
- Write down roughly how old it is, in years, as best you remember.
- Write down how much free space the main drive reports today.
- Write down one sentence on why you are curious about this kind of game at all.
That last line matters more than the technical ones; Step 5 asks you to read it again.
A worked example to follow through the course
A hypothetical household appears in every step so the advice has somewhere to land: two adults sharing a five-year-old Windows desktop in regional Victoria, one of whom saw an advertisement and wondered whether the computer would even run it. It is an invented illustration, not a real family, and nobody in it is named or quoted.
Their questions are the ordinary ones: will it fit, will it cost anything, will it take over the evening, and can it be undone.
What you can do without paying anything
All five steps, the checklists and the printable page cost nothing and ask for nothing: no sign-up, no email field, no account, no progress to save. Your browser is not asked to store anything, so the checklist boxes are printed marks rather than controls that remember a tick.
Beyond this site, the four checks that matter most are free: your own computer's specifications, a game's published requirements, its classification entry, and its terms. None of those requires an account anywhere.
Where Raid: Shadow Legends appears, and why
One title is named in Steps 1, 3 and 4 as a concrete example of the genre: Raid: Shadow Legends, a desktop collection role-playing game. The links to it are paid affiliate links, and they are why this site is free to read.
The course states only what the vendor's own programme states about it: that a person registers on the game's landing page, installs the game and launches the tutorial, and that the desktop versions are for Mac, Windows and Linux. Anything else is not stated here, because the vendor does not state it to us and we do not test products.
Paid affiliate link. Visit the Raid: Shadow Legends website — Softprism Online is paid a commission if you register and install through this link, at no additional cost to you.
Australian bodies worth knowing
Six public sources are used across the course, each for what it actually covers. The Australian Classification Board publishes how computer games are classified and what each marking means. Scamwatch, run by the National Anti-Scam Centre, publishes information about scams reported here. The eSafety Commissioner is the national online safety regulator.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission administers the Australian Consumer Law and its consumer guarantees. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner is the privacy regulator. The Australian Cyber Security Centre covers keeping software updated.
Questions readers ask first
Do I have to finish the course in order?
No. The steps build on each other, so order is easier, but nothing locks and nothing is tracked. Step 2 stands alone if all you want is your computer's specifications.
Does this site work on a phone?
The pages read fine on a phone. The course itself is about desktop computers, because the game used as the example is offered for Mac, Windows and Linux desktops.
Will anything on this site install software on my computer?
No. This is a set of text pages — no download, no installer, no utility. Step 4 describes installing software you choose to install, from the vendor's own site.
Who writes it?
The editorial team at G-Wetroltrans s.r.o., the company that publishes the site; there are no individual bylines. The About page explains the method, including the commercial relationship behind the links.