Do you ever lower the difficulty?

[martin's a madman]

I usually learn how to play a game on the harder difficulties. I don't lower them. I'm very patient in that regard.

I learned how to play Left 4 Dead on expert. Now it's the only way I can play.

 

[Lazarus Long]

I'll only move up from easy if I'm getting bored. I'm in it to have fun and feel like a badass. I'm perfectly comfortable with, for example, never playing higher than "settler" on any Civ game since 2. There's just nothing better than rolling your tanks up in Napoleon's mud village.
The main exception would be Guitar Hero/Rock Band. I've spent the last few months bitterly trying to claw my way into Expert.

 

[The Axon Hillock]

My policy is, if the fun stops because of difficulty, change the difficulty. I played Dead Space on Hard and God of War on easy. Just adjust so you are having a good time. I like to treat my game like they are games.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Never. The only games I've ever lowered to easy were Dragon Age and Stalker.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

Yeah, there nothing wrong with it.

It's not like someone going to chatise me for it.

 

[escapistraptor]

I used to always play games on easy first, just to explore the game itself, then up the difficultly accordingly. But due to mocking by friends, I've started starting at the normal level. I did slip back once though, when I first got L4D2, an experienced friend and I both got killed by a Tank on the second mission. I totally played the rest of the game offline and on easy after that so I could know what to expect from the missions.

 

[VampiresDontSparkle]

I, uh, always play on the easiest mode available.

>.>

 

[oreopizza47]

Nowadays, I start out easy, and then ramp up as fast as possible after the first playthrough. This is mostly due to the fact that I am an insufferable Trophy-whore and most games nowadays have Trophies for beating the game on a high difficulty. Before the advent of Trophies/Achievements, I would do the same, but for the sake of bonus content, not Trophies. Ah, the sweet naivety of youth, how I doth miss thee... erm, I mean, damn there are way to many Trophies and not enough time.

 

[Omikron009]

I never, ever lower the difficulty, even if it means serious frustration for me. It usually doesn't, but there have been times when I've come close to doing so. Most often in Dragon Age.

 

[aether-x3]

Dragon Age is just mean, I too got to the first ogre and just couldnt do it so I turned it to casual and have played on casual ever since.

I most likely play on easy. Its good for when you just want to get through a game without having to die alot. L4D/2 is an exception, I play them on Normal, Only use easy for achievement-whoring. I generally suck at games in general so Im fine with Easy.

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

I think games that are all about outrageous destruction should be played on the lowest difficulty for maximum obliteration as a rule. It's just more fun and gives you that warm fuzzy maniacal feeling.

Nah, im not too sure about that. Have you played [PROTOTYPE]?

Alex Mercer is pretty much a powerhouse when it comes to causing destruction and slaughter on massive scales as it is, and I found that the hardest difficulty setting made the game decently difficult as opposed to ridiculously easy.

After all, the guy can shrug off bullets (they don't do much damage at all individually) hijack an attack helicopter in mid air and even smash the crap out of a battletank with his bare (albeit shapeshifted/mutated) hands. If I have those powers at my disposal then any further "handicap" certainly shouldn't be necessary.

 

[WonderWillard]

I hate lowering the difficulty mid-game. I feel like it's a sign of weakness. I had to do it in Dragon Age though, I started with it on normal and had to drop down to casual in the circle of magi tower. My old school RPG skills were a bit rusty.

 

[Yomandude]

I usually play on Normal difficulty, then again on the hardest if there are trophies for it.

This.
Beating some games on the hardest mode for me can be crazy. I can start throwing the controller and all that. I recently tried beating Bioshock 2 on Hard without any of the Vita-Chambers, and this is how it went:
La-di-da, oh, this difficulty's a bit different. I guess I should use cover a bit more. Oh, no, the Big Sister killed me. I guess I'll reload another 50 times trying to beat THE SAME F***ING BIG SISTER STUPID MOTHER FU
Same with Just Cause 2. Normal even made me want to have an aneurysm.
But some games do difficulty settings well. Reach appealed to me a ton by making the "Monument" achievement not undoable, but all your wits are needed about you.

 

[WolfThomas]

Am I the only one who had to turn up the difficulty in Dragon Age? That said in games like that I obsess over the stats and party management, till it's a well oiled killing machine.

But usually I start on normal and rarely change it.

 

[daftalchemist]

I used to always play games on easy first, just to explore the game itself, then up the difficultly accordingly. But due to mocking by friends, I've started starting at the normal level. I did slip back once though, when I first got L4D2, an experienced friend and I both got killed by a Tank on the second mission. I totally played the rest of the game offline and on easy after that so I could know what to expect from the missions.

I used to always play on easy as well due to lack of confidence and because I really didn't care either way. But once I started dating my current boyfriend, he kept egging me on to just try normal difficulty, and now I feel like a newb loser if I think of going down to easy at all. For instance, just tonight I restarted The Witcher on easy mode. I tried fighting The Beast at least 10 times, and decided to just restart on easy to make my life easier. Then he starts asking me if I have any interest in playing any games on normal difficulty anymore. Thanks to the replies from this thread, I felt very confident in saying that I will be putting any game that gets too frustrating down to easy so that I can continue fitting games into my schedule.

 

[C95J]

Sometimes on Normal difficulty, mostly on the highest and NEVER any lower than average.

I like a challenge.

 

[daftalchemist]

Am I the only one who had to turn up the difficulty in Dragon Age? That said in games like that I obsess over the stats and party management, till it's a well oiled killing machine.

But usually I start on normal and rarely change it.

My boyfriend played through it on hard. I think it had to do with him being a fighter. I was a mage, and that first ogre was just impossible. I went in with another mage and Alistair. Alistair held his own for a short while, but that second mage just went down in an instant, and I only had enough mana to cast one spell. It was ridiculous.