I saw this yesterday and there's so much obnoxious elitism in the comments. Like playing games without music is THE WORST THING EVER and people can't play games the way they want. Sheesh.
I think some games lend themselves better to playing without sound. Games like Advance Wars or Picross, where you're constantly listening to the same music. I buy those games intentionally to have something to play while I'm watching television.
I can see how you'd miss out on something if you're playing without music in games like Halo or Final Fantasy XIII, but I honestly rarely even notice the music in games like that, so I have a hard time seeing the view that YOU MUST LISTEN INTENTLY TO ALL MUSIC OR YOU ARE RUINING THE GAME that seems prevalent on Kotaku.