What's your preferred difficulty setting?

[Sagt]

I usually play the normal difficulty by default. From there, I'll only increase it if I find the game too easy.

*Remembers when, a year or two after CoD: World at War came out, I naively gave veteran mode a try*

It's not very enjoyable for a game to be nigh impossible and require too many attempts to complete, as it takes away from the experience of the game. That said, I can appreciate increasing the difficulty for games like Europa Universalis, since it makes the AI more aggressive and unpredictable, without making the game stupidly difficult for the player.

 

[Fitch_Tiger]

I always start on the easy/normal difficulty to enjoy the story and get story based trophies. I then switch to harder difficulties if I loved the game enough and feel like I won't get stuck too much.

 

[Rumby]

Easy because I'm bad at games LOL

 

[real time strategist]

normal/hard usually, it really depends on the game, if it's not a relatively new FPS game i'm going to generally play on hard because they don't tend to have enemies turn into bullet sponges, while on newer FPS games it's going to be normal because i don't really like pumping two magazines of assault rifle ammo into one dude while still being able to take something like double of that damage before i die.

 

[Skychickens]

I usually chuck things somewhere in the middle. Easy settings are always TOO easy and sometimes I don't feel like playing hard. Once I get a good grip of the game though I usually play harder. Like Skyrim...I install mods that are super immersive AND ones that will make my life miserable. Oh god I have to worry about not freezing AND the dragon that is scaled for a character 4x what I am?! GREAT.

Point is I usually set my games (when I can) to whatever they rank in the middle to start. Then if I need it harder I'll adjust on a later run.

 

[LeonOnyx]

I usually go normal cause I want to get through the game at a constant pace but games like Halo I usually bump it up to Heroic a sweet middle ground between Normal and Certain Death, but if I really like the game I’ll go back through on the hardest difficulty.

 

[EapingEagle]

Games like kingdom hearts, JRPG, or any game I'm familiar with I go with the hardest difficulty

But games that I'm trying out I go on Normal difficulty.

 

[Remy]

Easy / Normal, rest of the difficulties [especially ones with achievements] i leave for my corgsband to SUFFER through. *CACKLES* kidding, he doesn't mind doing it for me.

 

[Stealtheart]

Normally I play on easy settings. I can do hard, but I prefer to play causally. I mainly play strategy games and I like to take my time and build my empires or cities. Sometimes it does get boring but the feeling of building something wonderful from the ground up is always worth it, rather than the feeling of dread as everything falls apart.
In games like Company of Heroes I put the enemy on normal and my allies on hard. Just to keep the enemy back because I take a little longer to build up my forces. But I tend to carry the team because the Allies aren't that great anyway.

 

[MoguMoguArt]

I'm a soft person i start on Easy at first and when i get the hang of it i increase the difficulty

 

[Hairy Harry]

Always Easy, I suck at most games and rather than rage quit I just never finish them, so I gotta have better odds lol

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

My general practice is to start at the hardest difficulty and work my way down if I can't get past the first couple levels any other way. Once I'm past the 1/3 mark, though, I consider myself locked into whatever difficulty I've played to that point. Any inability to progress beyond that point is not a sign to turn back but a sign to start seeking advice.

There's one notable exception to this rule - when higher difficulties introduce new rules. Three examples I remember are respawning enemies where there weren't before (Doom), a sudden reduction in the number of revives you have (Payday 2), or friendly fire suddenly becoming an issue (Vermintide 2). In most cases, I avoid these changes like the plague, and when they're all that's left, I consider the game done and move on. (Incidentally, Vermintide 2 is likely going to become a partial exception to this exception.)

 

[Dongding]

Halo5 was AWFUL playing through on legendary. What a broken PoS.

Let's make it necessary to keep 3 squadmates alive that die one hit and don't utilize cover EVER! The move to command only moves them to a spot until they get there. There's no "Hold" command. They just run back into the open as soon as they reach the cover you commanded them to go to.

 

[Infrarednexus]

It depends on the game. On some shooters like COD, I like playing on hard because it seems more realistic like in actual warzones. However if I'm playing RPGs like Borderlands or Oblivion, I play on easier difficulties because I like to feel like a badass and make myself harder to put down. It really depends on the enemies I'm fighting. If it takes three magazines to kill one dude when they could down me in just several shots, the game feels illogical and unenjoyable at that point.

 

[ChapterAquila92]

Ghost Recon on Elite. Not Ghost Recon 2, not Advanced Warfighter, not Future Soldier; we're going old-school with the ur-game of the tactical shooter series.

Squad-based tactics where you better be able to move and have a good alpha strike, or else your fireteams are going to be overwhelmed and dropped like flies.

The original Rainbow Six was the room-clearing version of this.

 

[Sealab]

I usually play on the hardest or second-to-hardest difficulty, because I just have fun getting my ass kicked until I rise above the challenge.

 

[Manek Iridius]

Normal/Hurt Me Plenty on three-point scales, Hard/Ultra-Violence on five-point scales. The latter especially when the numerical difficulty isn't in damage taken or dealt, but enemy density and reaction time.

 

[Catolo]

Alien Isolation has to be one of the most frustrating games I've experienced on the hardest mode. It's been a year or so at this point, so sorry if my mind falters.

The Alien AI is practically on your neck throughout the scenarios its involved, and the hardest mode resets your game if you die once. If I remember correctly, farthest I got was the big as room with metal pipes producing electricity shots all around. Place was so dark and the thundering so loud I didn't hear the android behind me..

RIP should've been more careful

 

[Judge Spear]

I prefer hard modes but it depends on how it's handled. You can have a real difficulty mode like Crimzon Clover or Mega Man 10 where the game is actually specifically differently arranged to be harder and you are required to rethink strategies. Or you can have shit boring hard modes like "Master" Mode in Zelda Snore of the Wild where the enemies do nothing different and just take tank your hits, breaking more of your tinfoil weapons, and one shot you.
Also, man the gaming section is deader than shit.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

You can have a real difficulty mode like Crimzon Clover or Mega Man 10 where the game is actually specifically differently arranged to be harder and you are required to rethink strategies. Or you can have shit boring hard modes like "Master" Mode in Zelda Snore of the Wild where the enemies do nothing different and just take tank your hits, breaking more of your tinfoil weapons, and one shot you.

Oh, right, I kind of forgot about the "lack of real effort into difficulty settings" bit. I'm increasingly intolerant of games that take the lazy way out of just dialing up a few stat numbers for difficulties - that'd be an example of a game that could drive me into easy modes just out of sheer contempt.

Especially given my understanding that most games willing to pull such crap don't have any compensating factor like better random drops. It wouldn't be enough to save most games with this issue, but it'd be the least they could do.

 

[Judge Spear]

Oh, right, I kind of forgot about the "lack of real effort into difficulty settings" bit. I'm increasingly intolerant of games that take the lazy way out of just dialing up a few stat numbers for difficulties - that'd be an example of a game that could drive me into easy modes just out of sheer contempt.

Especially given my understanding that most games willing to pull such crap don't have any compensating factor like better random drops. It wouldn't be enough to save most games with this issue, but it'd be the least they could do.

I don't really mind it in games where the goal is to make an optimal build because then the fun and focus is to understand the systems and synergy of equipment and stats. Stuff like Borderlands or Phantasy Star Online. The fun is in figuring out how to break your character and make your own stats ridiculously high. But in games where that ISN'T the case? Boo.

 

[Judge Spear]

One type of difficulty I like in the games I play is whats called loop 2. When you beat the game and complete specific hidden parameters (usually no deaths for the whole game) you are immediately thrown into another playthrough (loop 2) with rearranged patterns and slightly changed rules. Patterns are now obscenely difficult and if you get through it again without dying, you usually face a horrifically brutal secret boss at the end of the game.

I love reaching these and fighting these bosses but it takes me months to get that good usually.

 

[Karatine]

Usually the second to hardest difficulty setting. Maybe the hardest, if I feel comfortable with the genre or game I'm playing.
I don't really like breezing through most games like some sort of god-creature. It's more investing that way to have limits... Unless it's God of War. Then maybe I would.

 

[dogryme6]

Personally I'm a much bigger fan of the Normal difficulty. I don't like to be bothered with Hard difficulties for the reasons everyone else said before me. Usually the Normal difficulty's hard enough for me, and I can handle that most of the time. If it does get too hard I switch downwards to something easier, but I don't like to give in so I push as hard as I can "Just one more level" that sorta deal. If I can't, I switch.

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In all seriousness, I start a game in the medium/middle difficulty, and if I play it again i'll increase it.

Ah here we go
/gamerule keepinventory true
Bangarang. We're in. NO MORE LOSS FOR ANYONE!
As for @PlusThirtyOne and @Dongding I don't usually mod my games that much due to not having the technical know-how to do it. And when you try to twist a game into something it's not, for your own desires, it tends to work against you and that can be very frustrating.
However I WAS able to mod Minecraft with Forge and I gave myself Grappling Hooks and Gravity Changing. I find that to be a more fun change, especially when you run up the walls and then grapple your way across ravines to somewhere you want to go for self-imposed challenge's sake. So doing that's very fun. I'll give you guys that.

 

[TrishaCat]

I try to aim for hard mode, but it depends on the game and also what exactly said difficulty levels do.

2) Challenges are often "artificial" - most of the time, you don't get harder levels or intricate obstacles, but something like "you have less health" or "dudes take more damage".

While this is true I think its important to note that this isn't always a bad thing. Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix for example has a Critical Mode difficulty that rebalances the game as a means of making it harder. Enemies don't act any differently. Rather, there's just a lot of balancing changes with regards to what abilities you start out with/how you learn certain abilities, the amount of damage you deal, and the amount of damage you take among other things. And this did wonders for the game imo, as the game was so easy that you could just spam the attack button and reaction commands most of the time without actually being forced to learn and utilize all the tools the game gives you (the game gives you LOADS of different combat tools that often go underutilized by players on lower difficulties). A simple change in balance can have a huge impact on a game if done right.