Why do gamers often not care about the audio part of their rigs?

[khojaluna]

I've recently joined the "pc master race" subreddit, where people often share pics of their awesome gaming rigs.
In many of them, insanely expensive setups are shown, with values of 3000+ euros, multiple high quality monitors, expensive keyboard and mice... Basically everything that will improve their gaming experience.
... And then some crappy plastic "computer speaker" or "gaming headphone".
Obviously the issue there is not money, is priorities. But why put so much into the graphical power and completely ignore the audio quality?
I do understand that non-audiophiles do not need the type stuff we go for, such as multiple 1k+ headphones, with tube amplifiers and dedicated DACs to be happy, but gaming motherboard nowadays even often offer decent amps and DACs, which can power good headphones fairly well.
Are people simply unaware of how easily they could improve their setups audio, or do they simply not care? Do they not feel the same pleasure we feel from high quality audio, like, at all?

 

[tyhjaarpa]

Most likely most are victims of gaming brand marketing and unaware that there would be better options than what the gaming companies highly promote. Gaming headphones can easily cost 200-300€ and for that price you can already get good pair of headphones and microphone. Though not all of those are terrible, I personally got Beyerdynamic MMX 300 for office use and I have been really satisfied for them for their function.

 

[cpp]

Like one person noted, audio in games in an after thought. Its all about the eyes and motion and action drawing the gamer into the game. Its all about the stunning and realistic graphics that grips the user.

 

[NINaudio]

I stream my games to my home theater. Great audio included!

 

[j_garcia]

Like one person noted, audio in games in an after thought. Its all about the eyes and motion and action drawing the gamer into the game. Its all about the stunning and realistic graphics that grips the user.

That may or may not be true on PC, but it definitely is not for console. Audio from the PS4 and now the PS5 are definitely HT oriented and the audio is excellent on most games.

 

[Auditor55]

I've recently joined the "pc master race" subreddit, where people often share pics of their awesome gaming rigs.
In many of them, insanely expensive setups are shown, with values of 3000+ euros, multiple high quality monitors, expensive keyboard and mice... Basically everything that will improve their gaming experience.
... And then some crappy plastic "computer speaker" or "gaming headphone".
Obviously the issue there is not money, is priorities. But why put so much into the graphical power and completely ignore the audio quality?
I do understand that non-audiophiles do not need the type stuff we go for, such as multiple 1k+ headphones, with tube amplifiers and dedicated DACs to be happy, but gaming motherboard nowadays even often offer decent amps and DACs, which can power good headphones fairly well.
Are people simply unaware of how easily they could improve their setups audio, or do they simply not care? Do they not feel the same pleasure we feel from high quality audio, like, at all?

Please don't get me started on gamers. Thank God the audio industry doesn't care about them.

 

[cpp]

That may or may not be true on PC, but it definitely is not for console. Audio from the PS4 and now the PS5 are definitely HT oriented and the audio is excellent on most games.

Don't have a PS4 and or a PS5 nor would I require or need one as I at 70 don't play computer games. . Just going off my step son comments, he noted, what sound LOL. I think he's a PC gamer on some Falcon machine.

 

[tyhjaarpa]

Like one person noted, audio in games in an after thought. Its all about the eyes and motion and action drawing the gamer into the game. Its all about the stunning and realistic graphics that grips the user.

That may or may not be true on PC, but it definitely is not for console. Audio from the PS4 and now the PS5 are definitely HT oriented and the audio is excellent on most games.

Audio is important in games as well, might not be true for all games but at least for some it is. And I think for the past years gaming companies have been improving a lot in the audio field.

For some competitive games it gets even more important as with good heaphones with good staging and directional sounds you can pin point your enemy without even seeing them. You can tell which direction they are coming from, how far they are and in some cases even tell what they are doing and predict what they would do next.

Gaming companies know this and some have started to manufacture "5.1" headphones and what not to attract players attention, even though in reality many of these are actually worse than good pair of heaphones from affordable price ranges. The market is huge and there is demand, but most of the gamers don't know what would be best for them.

 

[Bucknekked]

I've recently joined the "pc master race" subreddit, where people often share pics of their awesome gaming rigs.
In many of them, insanely expensive setups are shown, with values of 3000+ euros, multiple high quality monitors, expensive keyboard and mice... Basically everything that will improve their gaming experience.
... And then some crappy plastic "computer speaker" or "gaming headphone".
Obviously the issue there is not money, is priorities. But why put so much into the graphical power and completely ignore the audio quality?
I do understand that non-audiophiles do not need the type stuff we go for, such as multiple 1k+ headphones, with tube amplifiers and dedicated DACs to be happy, but gaming motherboard nowadays even often offer decent amps and DACs, which can power good headphones fairly well.
Are people simply unaware of how easily they could improve their setups audio, or do they simply not care? Do they not feel the same pleasure we feel from high quality audio, like, at all?

I am in agreement with @tyhjaarpa , many gamers do care about the audio.

I am an old guy not a Gen anything guy. I play games but on a casual basis. World of Warcraft is my long time staple. Been playing for ages. One of the things that sank the hook so many years ago was the totally immersive sound field and the separation between you and the real world that it creates.

My current headphones do a 7.1 sound field and when you put those on and fire up the game, the real world is gone for a while and the totally immersive sound has its affect. I don't play using speakers because the rest of the household doesn't need to hear a battleground taking over the house. I believe most gamers I know use good headphones for the express purpose of great immersive sound but also to keep the obnoxious sounds of the game from bugging everyone else in the house or even down the block.

Music is just fine for people around the house even if they aren't listening directly. The sounds of a video game are almost 100% obnoxious to anyone not playing the game. Hence headphones over speakers most of the time.

 

[Pandaman617]

For at least the last 8 years my console has always been connected to either an AVR or Pre/Pro. Currently my Series X runs to a 6700h in a 9.4.4 Atmos configuration. The amount of native Atmos games though that haven’t been a disappointment is a whole different issue.

 

[panteragstk]

The only time my consoles and PC weren't hooked up to my home theater is when I didn't have a home theater when I was a pre-teen. So 25+ years ago.

I've always cared about sound more than the visual aspect of gaming/movies/TV, but that's not to say I don't care about the video side.

My PC now is the only one I've owned that doesn't have at least a 4.1 system. The main speakers for it are 2.1, but it's also hooked up to the 5.1.4 Atmos setup in my office so I'm not missing out. All my consoles are hooked up to the same system.

People that game are missing 1/2 the experience of modern gaming if they don't have things hooked up to a decent HT system.

It'd be like buying the highest end TV to watch movies through the TV speakers. Dumb.