Because “gaming” headphones often aren’t “just” headphones. They are headsets with a built-in boom mic
And a boom-mic is often way better than a crap wire mic or bluetooth headphone non boom mic.
There are still the trash ones, but there are also very good ones.
And a built-in mic is extremely useful on multiple situations : console gaming, tight space gaming (no place for a mic), or when there is only a single port on a device (tho a splitter, or hub could be used for a jack port or usb). There is also the convenience of just having a mic.
The issue now with all these headsets being “gaming”, is because of the marketing.
Some headphones brands have put mics on theirs, to make them headsets :
Beyerdynamic with the mx300 : the tight clamp makes it a bit of a no go for me. The mic is as just between ok and great. The voice is full, but there is a lot of noise in there from the reviews I saw.
Audio technica : they have multiple of them. Latest one the ath-m50xsts. It looks like a circum aural headset, but is not. It’s a on ear headset with ear isolation like a circum aural. Which is pretty bad for me. Tho the mic is the best I’ve ever heard on a headset.
They are both wired only.
And other brands not marketing as “gaming” headsets are either extremely expensive with strange mics, or have most of their production budget into audio and they pair the headphone with a trash mic to make it a headset.
In gaming headset brands, there are multiple ones providing software, mic, and wireless features enhancing the experience of the user. For example low latency high bandwidth wireless (proprietary, wifi-like 2.4ghz) connexions only exist in gaming branded headphones/sets. (high bandwidth = higher than bluetooth for the same latency).
One way would be to use small mics, like a lavalier mic.
Tho they are omnidirectional, and without noise cancellation. They also aren’t as good quality as a big mic.
Another way would be to use something like the modmic from Antlion. They have different models, but all seem worse quality for the sound than the modmic 5 they discontinued.
There was a bug where save files were not saved anywhere, even on the pc, after too many choices. It got patched, but steam sync seemed to be the issue.
The gaming space may have changed but I’d say it’s because you changed.
You brought in your decision the “worth playing”. Is this game worth to buy or is this game worth my time. When you can give your time a value, you can also compare it to what you are doing and if it’s worth to do that.
I tend to not really do that too much, because gaming is a hobby. If I start to compare it to what I could earn, well it doesn’t give the most “value” in monetary gain or maybe knowledge gain. But that is why it is a hobby for me, not work.
On the other side, is it worth playing? What is the comparison? The price? If you like the game? For me, if I can enjoy it, and come back to it, even if it’s very long (Warframe for example is the one where I have the most hours played), well it’s worth playing to me.
Tho some games are very expensive for the experience they give and some are really s* recently (gollum *cough) and those are not worth playing.
And is it worth playing compared to your other games? Maybe, maybe not? If you wait you can get discounts (at least on pc), and increase the value. And play your backlog in the meantime.
I think that playing the most recent games can be enjoyable but not always the best “value”. Tho I still play “newer” even if I have the backlog, which I use as a filler between releases and “patient gamers” style.