Oh no, it's not at all a pointless topic.
Although I don't play any games what so ever, I more than well know, how nasty it is to live with other people in terms of sharing noises. And when they dont, and most of the time they don't freakin' understand the problem.
As I also have autistic features, thus lower tolerance for louder noises, but it gets even lower during any kind of deeper/bigger stress. Once I even told my parents to stop making noise, while they were just talking.
Now it's almost a year since I live separate from my parents and it has been a good experience regarding noise, but still I have problems with other sounds around the house, that are outside my flat and thus not under my control

Btw, I don't have a laptop, but for about 10 years my desktop has had no screen connected to it, so it's nobody elses business, wtf I'm doing on my computer and it feels good that way.

Yeah, and besides, if you're playing an audiogame, you really *should* be wearing headphones anyway. Get some bone conducting ones, or just any that'll let in a decent amount of sound from the outside if you want to be able to talk at the same time. I really should do this myself actually, I tend to just use passthrough on my echo buds, though obviously this only works when audio latency from the PC won't be too problematic.
What you'll find pretty much anywhere, is that all of this is actually pretty normal, and that people generally aren't out to get you. I understand you have issues interpreting social queues, I do too, for what that's worth, but getting defencive will only cause the situation to escalate much further than it needs to. Like if people point out that there's nothing on you're screen and you're quite obviously hammering away on the keyboard, usually they're just curious. Not everyone knows about us.

Wearing headphones isn't looking like an anti-social recluse these days, you know.  Being on the laptop in the first place is way more antisocial than whether or not you're wearing headphones with it and, if you want to be perceived as even slightly social at all, you need to start by putting it away entirely.

Also, they've got multiple people watching TV and plugging headphones into a tv is actually quite difficult, plus only one of these things is portable.

it's hard for me to have sympathy here.  I feel like you want validation, but seriously, "I'm blind therefore I need audio, and also I don't want to wear headphones, and being blind makes me different from a sighted person and therefore I should have a different rule" is not a good way to approach the world.  Your options here are move out if you're an adult, or realize that being a kid kind of sucks if you're a kid, but I doubt you're going to get a bunch of "yeah that sucks" validation if that's what you wanted.

Another thing you might want to consider is, if these people annoy you so much, do you actually want to be interacting with them? I assume you have a room or some other private space you can retreat to, use it. And seriously, never mind what people think about it, they'll judge you regardless.
I remember when I was a lot younger, my parents actually got pretty worried because of how little time I spent with other people after I started secondary school. It took a while, but eventually they realized that no, I'm fine, I just like to be by myself a lot of the time, and yes, I'm still very much capable of interacting with humans and have a desire to do so, and that won't be changing any time soon.

@8 Care to elaborate on what I supposedly want validating?
You seem to like putting words in people's mouths, so what is this rule you think I want?
I'm not being funny or anything, but you need to get a grip and practice before you preach.
Yes, I'm blind, yes, I obviously need audio, and no I don't want to wear headphones because that's my preference... is there anything wrong with that?
But you must have a seriously low opinion of me to even think that I'd say I'm different to anyone else to the point where I need special rules.
Either way, I really don't think to deeply whether people want to sympathise or disagree with me.
I just created the post because I wanted to get some stress off my chest, and just as another thing to talk about.
Just as an afterthought, you should go tell the discord community to put there laptops away if they want to be, as you say, "perceived as being slightly social at all".

Well, totally with Camlorn here. Loud noises is not a blind's man problem here, its all around the place, just go and ask some sighted handheld player like 3DS, Switch etc, everyone will ask them to lower the volume/mute the device as soon as they have it running all the time ever so quietly. And nope, there are enough TV adversaries etc which you cannot watch just by "watching" them, like news etc, you'll often need to listen to whwat the people say instead of just watching them talk.
Other than that, its just a matter of preference here. You don't want to wear headphones? Fine, but don't feel offended if people tell you to because you're too loud. But I feel like i'm just repeating other people's points here.

Just wear headphones, if you're in a common space, it's not too much to ask.

@post 1, There is nothing wrong with people being bothered by the noises your computer makes. This doesn't have anything to do with blindness. What if you were listening to music? Wouldn't that mean noise? What if your brother or sister, or a friend of yours turns up the volume on his/her phone? Wouldn't that again mean noise and nuisance to your parents? There is nothing wrong with wearing headphones/earphones.
Personally, since I also like to be on point with what is being talked about and what is happening around while I'm doing my stuff on my laptop, I like to wear a pair of earphones, typically those that come with Apple devices. They don't block your ears, are cristal-clear, and you can keep them down, if you're concerned that your hearing will be affected.
Really, if you want to be sociable, you first have to be considerate. It doesn't matter if you're listening to music, playing games, talking, drinking, and what not. The circumstances are not exact. You have to understand that it may not be always the case that others like what you like, or agree with what  you do.

So, two things, from someone who's blind and practically deaf.
1.  You will never hear me say I hate social interaction... I don't!  Quite the opposite is true.  That being said?
2.  Sighted people particularly of my and future generations, and some who are older who try to act like they're part of my and future generations, are hard to interact with when you're me.  ON the one hand, in places and situations where it's now socially acceptible to carry around and use a smartphone all the time which is more or less everywhere, I'm the outcast, because I either have to turn my phone up loud enough for me to hear it, which is loud enough for anyone within 10 feet of me to hear it to some degree, or wear head/earphones.  The second is the common courtesy, but then, guess what?  I shut everyone out, which is socially unacceptable.  The alternative is to sit around and twiddle your thumbs and look socially awkward while everyone goes about poking at their screen, sharing posts on social media and smiling like idiots at things on the other end of the line they may or may not choose to share with you.  Lose lose.

Hi,

@Nocturnus, not sure if this would help with the issue you mentioned, but if you have an iPhone I believe there is a feature called ‘Live Listen’, which basically turns your iPhone into a mic so you can hear everything going on around you even with earphones in. I haven’t used it myself, so not sure if it would help, but I’ve heard of people hard of hearing who normally can’t hear the TV from back on the sofa, so they turn on live listen, place their phone near the TV, then pop in their Air pods and can then sit back on their Sofa and hear the TV  through their Air pods. I’m not sure if the feature only works with Apple Air pods and an iPhone, or whether you can use regular earphones too. Like I said I haven’t tried it myself, so no idea if it would work, but I thought I’d mention it in case you had an iPhone and could try it out, maybe if it works it might allow you to both listen to your phone via earbuds but also still hear what is going on around you at the same time too.

Paul

I am agoing to have to agree with most ppl. I use head phones when I am not using hearing aids. If I were to use my laptop I make sure that my family know that I am going to be hanging around the space of the house i am going to be using my laptop: I only use speech on my laptop around others the same can be said for my phone.