From what I am reading I'm in the minority. I start off with the harder difficulties and If I find a game is too hard then I lower the difficulty. I grew up playing games like Mega Man and Battletoads which are known for being tough so I just like a challenge. Being a trophy whore I will go with a lower difficulty to then clean up if necessary.

I play more for the experience than difficulty, but I do find some reward in the challenge so I usually pick normal. It's not usually the difficulty that bothers me, it's repeating a section I've already played multiple times because they didn't put a save point or checkpoint right before the difficult part.

As I move closer and closer to my old as dirt years, I do find myself on normal (and sometimes easy) difficulty levels. I certainly as many have already stated play for the experience. Even though I adore RPGs, I find myself sometimes leaving them open because I simply get bored with them. You can only level your character so many times before you wish for something more. The only way I would replay an RPG on Hard at this point in my life is if I was so close to 1000 achievement points that I felt the need to complete it (and that was the only achievement really missing).

it's important only in that i don't want a game that is so hard that it is frustrating and i want to throw the controller through my tv.

I usually start a game on hard, then play whatever the hardest is next.

I only play Fallout on very hard, and Oblivion just a few notches from the hardest setting.

Now, i've been playing games for over 20 years now, but if a game is so hard that it quits being fun and more geared towards frustration (Ninja Gaiden anybody?) I will refuse to play it.

Games back in the 80s had to be so hard because they needed something to hide how short they were. There is no excuse for that these days.

HOWEVER, if it's a XBL puzzle game like Explosion Man, N+, Trials HD, etc, I don't mind high difficulty because they usually provide tons of "easy" levels to get your money's worth, and if you try and beat the harder levels, I feel good after doing so.