Step 4 of 5
Classification, in-game purchases and randomised items
This is the step about money and about suitability. Both are easier to settle calmly now than in the middle of a match, and both have official Australian sources you can consult instead of taking anyone's word.
How games are classified in Australia
Computer games sold or distributed in Australia are subject to the national classification scheme, which assigns a rating and, where relevant, consumer advice describing why the rating was given. The scheme is administered by the Australian Classification Board, whose public information and searchable database are at classification.gov.au.
Two things about the system are worth understanding before you look anything up.
First, a classification is about content, not quality. A rating tells you about the kinds of material in the game — the level of violence, language, themes and so on — and says nothing about whether the game is any good.
Second, the consumer advice printed beside the rating is often more useful to a parent than the rating letter itself, because it names the specific element that drove the decision. Reading it takes seconds and is more informative than any summary we could write.
We deliberately do not state what rating any particular game carries, and we do not state any age threshold as a legal fact. Ratings are updated, they differ between versions and territories, and the Board's own entry is the authority. Look it up there.
Looking up a specific game
Numbered procedure — checking a rating
- Open classification.gov.au and find the search for classified material.
- Search for the exact title of the game, spelled as the publisher spells it.
- Read the rating and, more importantly, the consumer advice line beneath it.
- Note the date of the decision. An online game changes over time, and an older decision may describe an earlier version.
- If the title does not appear, do not assume anything from its absence; look instead at the classification or age guidance shown on the platform you would install it from.
- Write the result down beside the other notes you have been keeping since Step 1.
How in-game currencies work
Nearly every free-to-play game runs on at least two kinds of currency, and the difference between them is the single most useful thing to grasp in this step.
| Kind | How you get it | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Earned currency | Awarded for playing — completing matches, finishing tasks, reaching milestones. | How long it takes to earn enough for something you actually want. This is the real price, paid in hours. |
| Purchased currency | Bought with real money, usually in bundles of fixed size. | Bundle sizes rarely match item prices, so a small purchase often leaves a remainder that only another purchase can use. |
Two further habits help. Convert prices back into dollars in your head before deciding — an item priced at a number of coins is priced in Australian dollars underneath, and the conversion is arithmetic you can do. And check whether what you are buying is permanent or expires, because passes and timed rewards behave very differently from items you keep.
Some games also allow players to trade items with each other. Where that exists, the value of an item is set by other players rather than by the publisher, and it can fall as easily as it rises. The vendor of the game used as this course's example does not state its item economics on the pages we rely on, so check inside the game itself rather than assuming.
Randomised items, and why they need care
Some games sell containers whose contents are determined at random when opened. You know the range of possible contents; you do not know what you will get until you have paid.
Two plain observations about this are worth stating. The first is arithmetical: when the outcome is random, the amount you spend to obtain a specific item is not knowable in advance, so a budget set in items is not a budget at all. Set it in dollars.
The second concerns young players. Purchasable randomised rewards share obvious features with gambling, and they are not an appropriate thing to leave unsupervised for a person under eighteen. Nothing in this course presents them as suitable for minors. If a household includes a teenager, this is the point at which to decide whether purchases are permitted at all, and the simplest answer — no stored payment method on the account — is also the most effective.
Where to read more
The Australian Classification Board publishes the consumer advice attached to each decision, and the eSafety Commissioner publishes general guidance for families about games at esafety.gov.au. Both describe their own remit better than a summary can.
Setting a limit before you need one
A spending decision made in advance, in writing, in dollars, is a different kind of decision from one made at nine on a Friday night. The limit does not need to be clever. It needs to exist.
A workable method: pick a figure for the first three months, write it on the same page as your other notes, and treat it as a hard ceiling rather than a target. Many people pick zero, play for a month, and then decide whether the game has earned anything from them. That is a perfectly reasonable approach, and a free-to-play game is designed to be playable on exactly those terms.
If you do decide to spend, spend deliberately: decide what you want, find out what it costs in dollars, buy that, and close the shop. The failure mode worth avoiding is buying currency first and then looking for something to do with it.
Payment details and receipts
Three small practices prevent most unpleasant surprises. Do not save a card to the account if other people in the house can log in. Make sure purchase receipts go to an address somebody actually reads. And check your statement in the month after you first spend anything, so that a recurring charge you did not intend is caught in weeks rather than a year.
If a subscription or pass renews automatically, find the cancellation control before you buy it, not after. Knowing where it is costs nothing and removes the only genuinely stressful part of changing your mind.
Your rights as a consumer
Purchases of digital products by consumers in Australia are covered by the Australian Consumer Law, which includes guarantees that cannot be excluded by a seller's terms. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission explains those guarantees, including how they apply to digital products and in-game purchases, at accc.gov.au.
We are not in a position to tell you whether any particular refund request will succeed, and nothing here is legal advice. What we can say is that reading the ACCC's own description of consumer guarantees before you contact a publisher's support desk makes the conversation considerably shorter.
The household, at Step 4
Worked example — a hypothetical household
They look the title up on the Classification Board's site and read the consumer advice line attached to the decision, which answers the question the adults actually had. They agree a figure of zero dollars for the first month, written on the fridge list under the question they wrote at Step 1.
No card is saved to the account. The teenager keeps the account; the adults keep the email address that receives receipts. They have now finished the preparation and can install. This is a hypothetical household used to illustrate the course, not a report about real people or real outcomes.
Before you move on
Before you move on
You should now know how the game is classified and why, how its currencies work, whether randomised purchases are involved, and what your ceiling is in dollars. Step 5 is about the two weeks after installation, which is where most of the real decisions are actually made.
Checklist for Step 4
Work through this away from the screen
- Look the title up on the Australian Classification Board's site and write down the rating, the consumer advice and the decision date.
- Identify which in-game currencies are earned and which are purchased.
- Convert one typical in-game price back into Australian dollars so you know the real scale.
- Find out whether any purchasable item has randomised contents.
- Write a spending ceiling in dollars for the first three months, and date it.
- Decide whether a payment method will be stored on the account, and prefer not storing one.
- Check where purchase receipts are sent, and that somebody reads that mailbox.
- If anything renews automatically, locate the cancellation control before buying.
- Read the ACCC's description of consumer guarantees so you know what they cover.
All the checklists are gathered, ready to print, on the All checklists page.