What type of challenge do you look for when playing a game old or new?

OR alternatively what's your Difficulty mode of choice?Nowadays since 2012 , i've really been interested with the idea of the self imposed challenge as a whole ...especially when some of the games I play don't have any further choices too increase it or when it's made too be totally balanced much like a Platform game like the mainline Mario games and others of it's ilk. it's pretty ideal especially when it comes to experimentation.

Hmm, I think options are good. Though if a game is designed to be challenging I think marketing should make that very clear. Some people take loss very personally in games.

Personally play a lot of challenging games and competitive multiplayer, even usually crank it all the way to hardest and rarely downgrade. Namely because a lot of Hard-modes are actually creators intent, and Normal is for Gamers wanting the 'story'. Extreme Hard modes are a whole other debate; usually to test patience/ commitment I find.

However if all these lacked satisfying gameplay? I would drop them like a bad habit. Luckily for me what I value most isn't how hard a game is, but how good the gameplay is. Fail at that and I don't care what else the game is offering_

Think it's more important to enjoy what you do, than scale how much the game needs to be pushing you back to get a thrill out of it. One can enjoy both, sure. I certainly do. Though varies from person to person.

New games tend to be very easy and designed with a wider audience in mind, so the hardest difficult is generally a must.

Old games tend to be somewhat the opposite, as many were built without a save system, and nigh on impossible without memorising multiple play-troughs. I use saves liberally, usually at the start of a level only.

I usually go with hard. Seems like it was a good choice for The Outer Worlds.

Honestly I'm not a fan of difficulty settings. They are rarely balanced and there is usually a clear design difficulty.

Depends on the game.

If there is like 6 different ones from "very easy" to "insane" I go with "hard" or "very hard" on my first playthrough.

If I've heard a game is really hard, I can settle for "normal".

Like Cup said though, new games are often really easy, so "hard" or above is usually a must. I want to be challenged, but not overly frustrated.

I start on hard and if I die constantly I'll turn it down, if it's the opposite I'll turn it up.

I'm really not sure to be honest. I guess to put it simply I like a game to be challenging, but prefer it to be more fun.

As long as you've get some fun out of it ,that's all that matter. not all ideas of fun are the same

I usually play on normal. Once in a while I'll change it to easy or hard, but it's rare.