Installing carefully and surviving the first session

Where the installer comes from

An installer is a program that unpacks other programs onto your computer, which means it is given a great deal of latitude by the operating system. That is exactly why the source matters more than anything else in this step. There are two defensible places to get a game client: the publisher's own website, or a well-known storefront the publisher itself lists as a distribution channel.

Everywhere else is worse, and the common alternatives are worse for specific reasons. A download aggregator may wrap the real installer in one of its own that adds unrelated software. A file-sharing copy may be modified. A search advertisement may point at a lookalike address that differs from the real one by a character. The protection is dull and reliable: type the vendor's address yourself, or use a bookmark, and look at the address bar before you click a download button.

Visit the World of Warships website

Paid affiliate link. If an account is created and activated after following it, the affiliate network pays this site's publisher a commission. The same procedure applies however you reach the vendor.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes general guidance on installing software safely and keeping it updated, and Scamwatch publishes descriptions of current impersonation scams. Neither is specific to games; both are relevant here.

What a launcher does

Most large games do not install in one go. You download a small installer, which installs a launcher — a separate program whose job is to keep the game up to date. The launcher then downloads the bulk of the game, which is where the tens of gigabytes go, and from then on it checks for patches each time you open it.

Three consequences follow, and all three surprise people the first time.

• The initial download continues after the installer says it has finished. The installer was never the big part.
• You cannot usually play the moment the launcher opens; it will want to patch first, and some patches are large.
• The launcher generally starts with the computer unless you tell it not to. That is one of the settings covered below.

The installation, step by step

This is the general procedure. Follow it with the five values you wrote down in Step 2 beside you.

1. Reach the publisher's own site. Type the address or use a bookmark. Check the address bar.
2. Choose the build for your system. Pick the download that matches your operating system and, on a Mac, your chip. If the site offers only a system you do not have, stop — Step 2 covered why.
3. Download the installer. Save it to your downloads folder and let it complete fully before opening it.
4. Run the installer and read each screen. Clicking through quickly is how unrelated extras get installed. Point the installation at a drive with room to spare, remembering that patches will add to it.
5. Let the launcher download the content. This is the long part. Start it when the connection is otherwise idle, and do not put the computer to sleep halfway through.
6. Sign in and set the options before playing. Use the account from Step 3. Choose a server region near Australia, set graphics to a low preset, and go through audio and chat.
7. Play the tutorial, then stop. One tutorial, then close it and write two lines about how it felt. The urge to play for four hours on the first night is strong and is best resisted until you know the machine copes.

What the first evening looks like

A realistic first evening

Roughly	What is happening
0–5 minutes	Finding the right download, checking the address, starting the installer.
5–15 minutes	The installer finishes and the launcher opens. The real download begins.
Hours, usually overnight	Game content downloads. Nothing for you to do. Leave the computer awake and plugged in.
Next session, 5–10 minutes	Launcher applies a patch. Sign in. Set server region, graphics preset, audio, chat.
20–40 minutes	The tutorial. Expect to be confused for the first ten minutes of it; that is normal and not a sign of anything.
Afterwards, 2 minutes	Write down how the computer handled it: smooth, warm, noisy, stuttering.

The six settings to change on day one

Every game puts these in a different menu, so they are described by what they do rather than by where they live.

1. Server region

Choose the region nearest you. For a reader in Australia that generally means an Asia-Pacific or Oceanic option where one exists. This affects responsiveness more than any graphics setting will.

2. Graphics preset

Start at the lowest preset and work up one level at a time, playing a full match between changes. Starting high and reducing after a bad experience teaches you nothing about where the limit actually is.

3. Resolution and full screen

Match the resolution to your screen, and prefer a full-screen or borderless mode. If the game feels heavy on an integrated graphics chip, reducing resolution one step is usually the largest single improvement available.

4. Chat and voice

Decide, before the first match, whether text and voice chat with strangers are on. On a shared household computer this is a decision to make once, calmly, rather than in the middle of a game.

5. Start with the computer

Launchers often add themselves to the list of programs that start automatically. If you do not want the game opening every time the computer does, turn that off in the launcher's own settings.

6. Notifications

Many clients send desktop notifications about events and offers. Switching these off on day one removes a steady source of small nudges, which is relevant to Step 5.

Third-party add-ons and why to wait

Communities around large games produce add-ons: interface modifications, statistics overlays, skin packs. Some are made by careful people and welcomed by publishers; some are not permitted by the game's agreement; and some are simply a way to get a program onto your computer.

The sensible position for a first month is to install none of them. You do not yet know what the default interface lacks, you cannot yet tell a reputable community source from an opportunistic one, and anything described as giving an advantage in matches is likely to be against the conduct rules you read in Step 3 — with account closure as the stated consequence. If you do decide later, check first whether the publisher has a stated position on add-ons, then ask whether you would install this program if it had nothing to do with a game.

When something does not work

Three ordinary failures account for most first-night trouble.

The download stalls or restarts. Usually the connection or sleep settings. Keep the computer awake, plug it into power, and if possible connect by cable rather than wireless for the first large download.

The game starts and looks wrong, or runs very slowly. Lower the preset and the resolution before anything else. If that does not help, the next most common cause is an out-of-date graphics driver, which on Windows is updated from the graphics chip maker's own site or through Windows Update, and on a Mac arrives with the operating system update.

It will not launch at all. Check the operating system version against the published requirements again. A game that was supported last year may have raised its minimum in an update, and that is a stop sign rather than a puzzle to solve with downloaded tools.

Where there is an official support page, use it. A publisher's support site knows about its own faults; a general forum often does not.

The worked example continues

In the hypothetical Brisbane flat, the download is started on a Friday evening and left overnight, which keeps it out of everyone else's way. On Saturday the launcher patches for ten minutes. They sign in with the account made in Step 3, pick the nearest server region, set graphics to the lowest preset, turn voice chat off and text chat to friends only, and stop the launcher from starting with the computer.

The tutorial runs at a steady frame rate on low settings. The laptop becomes warm and the fan is audible, which they note. They write two lines: runs fine on lowest; fan loud after 20 minutes; try one preset higher next time. Then they close it. Total time at the keyboard, excluding the overnight download, is under an hour — and the household now has a working installation that nobody has spent a cent on.

Step 4 checklist

1. Reach the publisher's own site by typing the address or using a bookmark, and check the address bar.
2. Confirm the download offered matches the operating system and chip you recorded in Step 2.
3. Download the installer and let it complete before opening it.
4. Read each installer screen rather than clicking through, and decline anything unrelated to the game.
5. Install to a drive with free space to spare for future patches.
6. Start the large content download when the connection is otherwise idle, with the computer awake and on power.
7. Sign in with the account created in Step 3, not a new one.
8. Select the server region nearest Australia.
9. Set graphics to the lowest preset, then raise one level at a time across several sessions.
10. Set chat and voice to the level you decided on in advance.
11. Turn off starting with the computer, and turn off desktop notifications.
12. Play the tutorial once and then stop for the evening.
13. Write two lines on how the computer coped: temperature, noise, smoothness.
14. Install no third-party add-ons in the first month.

All five checklists, formatted to print.