Poll: Easy difficulty

[Darth Crater]

Easy: for quick playthroughs, achievement gathering, etc
Medium: starting point on unknown games
Hard: second playthrough (or first on a game I know I can handle, like ME2)
Harder/Insane/Nightmare/[clever name here]: for related achievements, or if the game really just feels that easy (example: Dragon Age Origins with a mage character).

 

[JSDodd]

If i'm familiar with the series/genre i tend to start on hard and see how it goes, if not then i go with the default.

 

[Normandyfoxtrot]

I generally play easy or normal/medium/what ever they hell their calling it now. Frankly this is honestly because I don't give two shits about the challenge I'm not hear for your challenge I'm here to be entertained by your story and have fun and considering most games take Hard+ to mean laser eye vision and 2k range plus 20mm pistols, I say no.

 

[Heeman89]

Depends on the game/if I'm playing Co-op, etc... I usually start off on Normal just to get the story (because that's what I buy games for) then up it to Hard, Very Hard, Insane, whatever it's called. In co-op I play on easy though because usually the people I play with are not gamers.

 

[AriaRequiem]

The only games I've ever played on easy right from the start are horror games. I find that I play them just to have the fun of the freak outs, shocks and scares, so the more times I die the less I'm into the game.

All other games I play on the most difficult setting right away so the game lasts longer and demands that I learn good use of strategy right from the beginning. I hate just walking through games.

 

[tzimize]

To me there are two kinds of games.

1: Super Meat Boy style games. Games that are about Gameplay. Pure and refined. In these, completing them or at least some missions on harder difficulties gives a nice feeling of mastering. I easily play on harder difficulties on these.

2: Mass effect style games. Games that are about story. More or less pure and refined. If a game has a great story, making the game too hard is simply frustrating. I want to know more story, but I keep dying to a boss or a hard encounter. On such games I play on easy and breeze through to enjoy the story.

Lets face it, you wouldnt want some guy trying to snag your book all the time while you were reading, right?

 

[Raven_Operative]

I play through once on medium, once on hard, and then play on easy.

sometimes its just so fun to play on easy and screw around instead of looking for a challenge. Take Infamous for example, its always fun to play, but on easy you just feel so much more bad ass, since almost nothing can hurt you.

 

[Odbarc]

I start on Normal these days. I used to, as a kid, play on Easy first. Learn the game (NES~PS1 era) assuming an Easy mode even existed in said games.

I think Twisted Metal 2 did it best by letting you only play 2/3s of the levels on Easy and interrupting your journey past Minion by making you switch to a harder difficulty. It was really then I learned to appreciate difficulty settings and how much of a better player I could be with harder challenges (cheating AI).

I rarely tangle with the 'hardest' settings, but I managed to get my All-Levels-On-Brutal portrait on SC2... but I probably would have done that with or without the reward just to see if I could do it.

 

[akibawall95]

I play on easy or normal to get a feel for the game then I play it on hard.

 

[teutonicman]

Depends on my mood. Sometimes I want a challenge, other times I want to feel like a badass and just steam roll though everybody. For example if you play as a blood mage on easy in DA:O you turn in to a wrecking ball made of hurt.

 

[JoJo Bizzaro 7]

I am a man. Hardest difficulty is my default.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

It seems i do things pretty backwards compared to a lot of other people...

I tend to start on easy and earn as many achievements as possible on my first playthrough and then, i play through again on the highest difficulty setting available to earn the last of the achievements.

 

[Normandyfoxtrot]

I usually play on normal cause I wanna play the game it is meant to be played.

Games are actually meant to be played on the Hardest difficulty. After the dev team codes the hardest difficulty mode, THEN they put in more health, stronger weapons, weaker enemies, more allies, etc. to make the easier modes.

Frankly neither one is wholly correct it depends on the dev team themselves yes some designer from the hardest and work down, some start from the middle, and yes, some start from the bottom up and frankly I tend to attribute artificial difficulty to those who start design at the middle or the bottom and increase difficulty by taking the easy way out.

 

[TerranReaper]

Whatever game it is, Mass Effect or old games, I will go for the hardest difficulty. I find easy to be too disengaging from the game and it just doesn't seem like a challenge or the satisfaction of beating something difficult. On a side note, I always chuckled when they lampshaded on your selection of easy mode though, such as Quake's "Can I play now daddy?" names for difficulty or this one JRPG that laughed at you, I've even heard of a game not allowing you to get to the actual ending if you played it on easy.

 

[kampori]

I will always start any game on Normal. If it proves too hard I'll happily bump it down to easy/recruit etc. I have no qualms with that, it's there for a reason anyway.
I rarely play on Hard difficulties, unless the game is really easy, or I'm too good (rarely the reason unfortunately!)
I prefer to play games for the exploration, story and gameplay. I like to cleave through enemies like a hero.

 

[interspark]

when i play a game for the first time i'll usually start out on normal, but as soon as i have the faintest idea as to how the game works i'll crank up the difficulty as high as it goes, unless of course it's the kind of game where the top level is designed to be completed by the superhuman alone, in which case i'll just have it as hard as physically possible

 

[Polyg0n]

No. I play most games on hard difficulty. Except those times when I for some reason pick up an RTS game, then I usually put it on normal.

 

[Light 086]

For me it depends... say for example ME 2. I'll beat the game on the hardest difficulty. However if I want to replay the game and choose a different option (Paragon or Renegade), I'd do this on easy(more likely a medium difficulty) because at this point I'm just playing for the story.

 

[conflictofinterests]

I always play on easy because for some reason the difficulty level tends to apply only to the fighting sequences and I'm more of a negotiator at heart. It's easier to get past the crunchy bone-and-blood exterior into the, hopefully, creamy conflict-resolving interior when it's on easy.

EDIT: Also, I get in a really foul mood when the combat is too hard. I have been told numerous times not to play on Hard difficulty.

 

[Nifarious]

Pretty clearly, if you're into games, you'll want the most out of them, which means playing on the hardest settings. Compare Halo on easy/normal to legendary. That's hours of added gameplay. So easy/casual is really there just to get achievements or ostensibly to just pat yourself on the back for having rushed through something. Games like RPGs, however, are much more about the immersion and experience than the challenge of gameplay. Playing those first on normal than hardest for a second time is more par for the course, I feel.