What’s your favorite kind of difficulty?

Obviously depends on the game, but generally I go for option 1. Sometimes 2.

I generally play on the "normal" setting leaving harder difficulties to the games I try to platinum; my favorites.

I usually go harder, unless the game is so damn stupid that it's just a chore. Just depends on the game.

Depends on the game but in general I like a challenge but nothing too bad.

NO difficulty at all.

Super Easy.

God mode enabled.

I should never die.

I want to blow through the games.

Games like Dark Souls suck the big one. Any game that makes me die more than 3 times in a row is not worth my time and is promptly deleted, sold or destroyed.

I'd say something like Bloodborne is probably the perfect amount of difficulty.

Wouldn't want more than that, to be honest. NES days were painful.

I like a challenge, but I also like difficulty options. I normally play a game on Normal difficulty the first time, but I like for there to be even harder difficulty options available for me to try when I replay the game later.

Pretty much option 1

I play on normal (ill change the difficulty though the games if its to easy) and then it I enjoyed the game the hardest.

Balanced difficulty is the best one.

I play games on normal difficulty the first playthrough. If I like it enough to replay it then I'll try harder difficulties.

Option 3.

If there is difficulty trophy then I go for hardest option. If not then I go for normal.

Mostly option 1, though I can enjoy something like option 3 if the challenge/game is well-designed enough.

I like to be challenged but I HATE doing the same task/area/ level, etc. multiple times, it just feels like a waste of time. I don't mind dying from time to time, I just hate repeating things I've already done.

I normally play on the default option whether that be easy or normal, but if there's an achievement for beating it on the hardest difficulty then I will play that from the get go if the game allows it. Speaking of which why do some games lock the hardest difficulty and force you to play it on normal to unlock hard.

If I like the game, I ramp it up to high or highest difficulty.

If I find the game "okay" which I usually do, I just play on normal to get it done and sadly miss out on the intricate mechanics which seems to only be really useful on higher difficulty.

Depends on my mood :P If I want to take it easy, then easy difficulty it is! If I feel like immersing myself for hours, a more challenging difficulty is appropriate.

The short answer? Easy. I like to progress through a game, I don't like to be held back by [generally] artificial barriers; to me, that gets frustrating very fast.

The honest, genuinely challenging kind is what I like. I hate artificial difficulty resulting from simply lowering the playable characters numbers/raising the enemies' numbers.

I'm playing Horizon Zero Dawn right now, and I find it pleasantly challenging. You need to be quite tactical with your attacks, think things through, and be prepared. But I also am terrible with controllers, so that is probably half the battle right there haha.

TL;DR: I like difficulty resulting from genuine challenge.

I typically play one notch above normal. Once in a blue moon a game comes along and makes me dial it back down to normal though. Max Payne 3 is a perfect example, I think picking "hard" on the first playthrough was asking a bit too much from my old man reaction times.

i usually play at first on the second highest difficulty level and i replay it at the highest difficulty level

I don't need to die all the time for a game to be difficult or challenging.

Dying is arbitrary.

I like games that are made to be/balanced for hard and can be scaled down, as opposed to the opposite. The later (mostly AAA) normally just ends up being shitty because they resort to algorithmic false challenge. Instead of more complex challenges and scenarios to deal with, it's just multipliers on health, drop rates, etc. Very lazily done, like in Bethesda's RPGs. To be fair most don't make their harder modes more difficult in interesting and rewarding ways and I try and steer clear from shit like that.

I enjoy playing hack n slash games on their higher difficulties (when I can handle it). Other genres I tend to stick to normal.

I don't like the challenge in old school games that force you to beat the whole game or multiple levels in one sitting. I prefer more modern difficulty like in Super Meat Boy and Donkey Kong Country Returns where the levels can be crazy difficult but you only need to beat one at a time.

I'm playing the Witcher 3 on easy cus I hate the combat + don't want to worry about the RPG elements so much. Sub Nautica looks pretty cool and I think I would play it on easy to lessen the tedium when I get around to it.

I hate the way the Souls games punish you for not being able to beat a section with your weapon/armor wearing down + your supplies running.

Started playing Nioh yesterday, and I don't think your equipment breaks so I might actually be able to beat it.

I am the kind of gamer that turn the difficulty all the way down to enjoy the story. I just like mowing down enemies and getting to next cutscene. I just dont have the time to grind anymore.

Though I will raise the difficulty accordingly depending on platinum trophy. If it only needs me to play on normal difficulty to finish a game then well, normal it is but to if the game asks for ultra hard for that trophy? Nope I will just turn the game difficulty all the way down to easiest.

It depends. Some games like STALKER: Call of Pripyat I play on Master. Others like Hard Reset, I play no higher than Medium. Still others like GTA V don't seem to have a difficulty setting unless I missed it somehow.

Challenging, but not to the point of being frustrating. Trial and error is a bad game design unless it serves a purpose, like in the souls series and most Hack'n'slash bosses, where you die so that you can learn their patterns. If the attacks are random and still requires trial and error, thats bad design

Usually hard in first playthrough, and hardest if i play again.

Normal.

Usually go hard or normal depending on the game. FPS and rpg are usually hard and strategic games I tend to go for normal!

If it's a story I usually go easy to immerse myself into the story and lore of the game.

Usually a game has to have some push back to keep me engaged. Otherwise I just feel like I'm going through the motions. I need that sense of accomplishment.

I only play on hard on my 2nd playthrough

Always start on hard once finished, I restart on a godlike to see how far i can go (( This only if i really enjoyed the first run ^^ !!!))

It's more like training than trying to complete the game in this second run.

If a game has a list of different difficulty settings, then I usually play on Normal.

Unless it's from a genre I don't typically play, it's hard for the first run, and then hardest for the subsequent playthroughs.

If game new ,design for disgusting casual easy.

If old fk u coin chomp extend 20 min game, easy.

Normal but it depends on the game.

It's less a matter of how hard the game actually is and more a matter of if the difficulty is designed in a way that requires you to make the smartest and most effective use of the mechanics, but assuming that's the case, the highest difficulty is usually the best.

I just stick to normal difficulty on first playthroughs, if I really like the gameplay I will up difficulty for future playthroughs.

I like to play the game how it was intended to be played, a lot of game balance and pacing and so on is written for a specific difficulty level.

Some hard modes in games get insane difficulty spikes because there is a range in the difficulty level on the lower settings, so what starts of doable and fun becomes fucking annoying later on, especially the games that only increase the difficulty by making enemies sponges and putting in time limits.

Then you have games like Civ and other strategy games that just makes the computer players cheat to get an advantage which makes game balance fucked in a lot of situations.

This is why games like 'Souls are superior, because it only has one mode that is hard but not unfair. A lot of other games you can't "git gud" because its more like throwing a dice and hoping you get a certain outcome which is not fun in my opinion.

I generally start with hard. Besides something like the new God of War (which is ridiculous on hard), most games are too easy.

A fair challenge that assumes common sense. Teach us the mechanics, establish the rules, and then challenge us constantly on it.

I will only say that I like good challenge. It's a lot of fun and it's rewarding.

I like it when the difficulty scales with your progress nice and evenly - some games do this so well that you barely notice.