Do you care about Audio Immersion/Do you care about Game Audio

[chavosaur]

I was curious as to how many people will play games using a dedicated headset/gaming headset for audio immersion purposes.

More specifically, do you play games typically with headphones, or without? Do you feel this effects your immersion?

I own 3 different pairs of Razer Headphones and REFUSE to play games on console or PC without having a headset. Sound means everything to me in gaming now, and it sucks me into the world when i'm isolated from everything but the audio of the game.

How do you feel about it?

 

[Vipera]

Depends by the game and by what I'm doing. I've been playing games with my headphones on when I want to get as much immersion as I can. That, or listening to the amazing soundtrack of some game. When I don't feel like going into a full-immersion or doing multitasking, I will just use my speakers. When audio isn't required at all (xp farming, item looting) or when I'm out, I just play mute. I'm not going to play L.A. Noire when I'm on the bus. I'm more prone to play games like N+ or Wipeout Pure.
I also enjoy listening to podcasts/watch stuff while I play. I've been playing a lot of classics with someone I'm having over, but usually if I play a very old game that's not too perfect in the OST department (and if I'm alone) I will listen to podcasts/watch videos. I've been doing this for so much time I became way too good at this kind of multitasking.

 

[Issac]

I either use my high quality headphones or my 5.1 speaker system. Sometimes the surround sound make me more immersed, sometimes headphones does.
Unfortunately I am positioned with my back against a hallway when at my computer, and I have such a need for control that I feel it is really uncomfortable not hearing what's behind me. If someone comes up to me or so. And if I'm alone, I won't hear the phones ringing or if someone knocks on the door.

 

[FAST6191]

Bad audio is not as fatal for games as it is for video. I do tend to use headphones (plain stereo but half nice) but that is more because I have neighbours and my computer speakers are right next to their wall. On "gaming headsets"... gaming mice are a given, gaming keyboards I can see existing as well (though it is probably more the ranks of dedicated controllers than general gaming use) and I can even see gaming monitor setups, the only time I can see gaming headset exist is when they ship them with the ports/plugs and chips to attach to my consoles. Gaming sound cards.... allow me to laugh even harder.

Exceptions for things like first person stealth horror, or stealth in general. My consoles I have long fired through a PC or an audio amp that means I can play my choice of music over the top of them. I have hacked a few DS games to play what I want them to play as well.

I will note it if someone does well, recently I decided to play AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome and they did very well at multiple levels. Voice acting in games I have been trained to expect to be bad, hence most things having the qualifier "for a game".

 

[elmoemo]

Not even slightly, I play with no sound at all at the minute as I play on a smaller TV in the living room lol but want to get a headset to play only they are too expensive at the minute

 

[Taleweaver]

I don't care about audio. I game with the cheapest kind of speakers and don't feel like I'm missing anything.

the funny thing is perhaps that I do have decent headphones, and I even bought myself a midrange speakerset at some point. But while that certainly makes a difference, the former is usually too much of a hassle to set up and the latter required too much desk space than I have*, so the end result is what I use.


*it's connected to my spare PC right now.

 

[Arras]

I literally always have my headphones plugged into my laptop, whether it's for gaming, watching videos or just listening to music while doing something else. For consoles I have a cheapass 5.1 setup that does its job decently well. Somehow console games on a TV don't feel right without speakers.

 

[Veho]

the only time I can see gaming headset exist is when they ship them with the ports/plugs and chips to attach to my consoles. Gaming sound cards.... allow me to laugh even harder.

When I think of something that would warrant the term gaming headset, I imagine a pair of decent- to high-quality 5.1 headphones, possibly wireless, with a microphone for voice chat. Nothing else is inherently "gaming"; headphones without a microphone are just headphones, and a crappy headset is made for call centre operators and secretaries, and their use for gaming is purely incidental. The only point in calling either of them specifically "gaming" equipment is so that you can hike the price up by 30% (much like slapping a Hello Kitty sticker on it).

"Gaming sound cards" are a notion as ridiculous as "gaming drinks" and "gaming snacks".

 

[FAST6191]

Actually thinking what might do for a gaming sound card has me curious.
Nothing has even gone anywhere close to it from what I have seen but I reckon a leaf from the graphics card book and giving something an API for doppler*, possibly an API for echo/reverb and probably some kind of hardware decoding (the 360 has something like this for a relative of WMA I believe) might actually do some good. I can not see it happening really -- physx cards were a stretch, though as graphics card swallowed them up and graphics cards do count as audio out by virtue of having HDMI these days (and displayport having such things, and it possibly having spdif). It might even gain a bit of the production market similar to graphics cards as well.

*I think it was the PC port of Halo that had the option to disable doppler effects.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

It depends entirely on the game for me. If the game is very story driven, has a lot of dialogue or cutscenes and such I'll generally play with the audio on. If it doesn't, or if the audio is just repetitive most of the time, I'll mute it and watch stuff while I play the game at the same time.

 

[Jiehfeng]

Omg I swear, if a good game which doesn't have a good sountrack it deserves, i'll be bummed out like hell.
At the same time, if a game has a wonderful soundtrack, it makes everything much much better. So yeah, hell I do care.
Take ace attorney for an example.

 

[Depravo]

When I think of something that would warrant the term gaming headset, I imagine a pair of decent- to high-quality 5.1 headphones, possibly wireless, with a microphone for voice chat. Nothing else is inherently "gaming"; headphones without a microphone are just headphones, and a crappy headset is made for call centre operators and secretaries, and their use for gaming is purely incidental. The only point in calling either of them specifically "gaming" equipment is so that you can hike the price up by 30% (much like slapping a Hello Kitty sticker on it).

"Gaming sound cards" are a notion as ridiculous as "gaming drinks" and "gaming snacks".

You mean I wasted money on these 'gaming' underpants?

 

[ShinyLatios]

I don't have specific headsets/headphones or whatever, but gaming without sounds just feels plain... wrong.

 

[emigre]

Yeah. I like plugging in my AKBs into my Duelshock 4. A super awesome feature imo.

 

[FAST6191]

You mean I wasted money on these 'gaming' underpants?

I do not know about you but my gaming boxers are good for putting on Friday morning and going until Monday morning.

 

[Coto]

I do absolutely like hardware (psg/stream) audio to come as clean as possible.

For that I use FIIO amplifiers + good headphones + L/R composite plugs from most ninty home consoles..

Dunno if this is just me, but for example, timers on NDS is allowed to replicate most noise (from gb/c) games better (even if done from moonshell as a mp3 file), compared to any PC+ Media Player.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Music is the most important thing in a game for me, I normally play with headphones or at least good speakers.

 

[Veho]

I do not know about you but my gaming boxers are good for putting on Friday morning and going until Monday morning.

That sounds more like diapers to me.

 

[FAST6191]

That sounds more like diapers to me.

Pah, for those sorts of sessions there is a catheter. Some would have said it would have been less effort to just get this but they are clearly not as into this as I am.

 

[Veho]

Is that a tub of butter