When I go through a game I usually just complete it on the default or normal difficulty. I don't have alot of gaming time so I prefer to just to have some challenge and move the story along. I don't enjoy cussing and bashing my head against the wall repeating sections over and over. However there has been a few games that I have beaten on each difficulty.

Ninja Gaiden Black -- defeated normal, hard, and very hard (didn't try Master ninja)
Gears of War 1 -- defeated casual, hardcore, and insane
Dante's Inferno -- defeated normal, hellish, and infernal

These are the only 3 games in recent memory where I wanted to do every difficulty. I do remember back in the 90's striving to completing "00 Agent" difficulty for each level in Goldeneye.

Is difficulty real important to anyone here?

Yes, very.

I love playing video games, but truth be told am not really very good at them (especially shooters).

I'm much more interested in the experience and the gameplay than "the challenge". I'll pick a lower difficulty level whenever I can.

Many times I've played through a game, and along the way promised myself that I'd play back through on a higher difficulty -- but except for a couple of the Call of Duty games I almost never do. Instead I move on to "new hotness".

One of my complaints with the Assassin's Creed series is that there's no way for veteran players to raise the difficulty.

I rarely return to games these days, but I don't want to blow through them either. So I usually just go with "Normal," which is a good middle-ground for me.

100% agree

I almost always do the first play through on normal so I know what to expect. And if I like the game enough, the next time I play through on hard so I know what to expect.

I hate it when games are rediculously hard. I just want to play through the game and enjoy the experience, I don't have the time or patience to try the same mission or whatever over and over and over. I was so frustrated last night getting through the end of Arkham Asylum having the play the last few battles multiple times to beat them on the default difficulty.

Depends on the game, if we're talking challenge like the later Super Meat Boy levels then I love it - but that's more puzzle game difficult. If we're talking difficult like making swarms endless, or taking 4 clips to kill 1 enemy, then I can do without it.

This describes me 100%. I love COD multiplayer, but I am one of the guys that finishes in the bottom half of the lobby most matches. I still love it though.

Weird, I consider myself an average to poor gamer, I have slow reflexes, and I didn't think AA was that hard even on hard difficulty. Only took me about 4 tries to beat the Joker. Poision Ivy was a bit harder, but once you figure out the patterns it's not that hard. I also think the lesser gamers among us are helped in these games by the fact that the bosses that have more than one "phase", like Ivy and Joker, actually save in between phases, so you don't have to beat them all in one try.

And to answer the original question, I am a bit of a trophy whore, so if there are more trophies to be offered by beating it on a harder difficulty, I will at least attempt it. I played AA on hard because beating on on hard gives you the trophies for beating it on Easy and Normal as well.

I will complete every game on the default(normal) difficulty setting then usually play again on the harder level above default whatever that may be. I have a hard time with people who play on easy. By selecting easy in some games over the years, people have missed out on certain sections of a game or certain segments contained within the game only accessible on the higher difficulty. IMO...the people playing on easy also have the strategy guide lying right next to them throughout the entire game. Why bother playing.....

As i've gotten older, the appeal of a challenge while playing games has dropped considerably. When I was a kid, i'm sure i'd play something over and over again until I beat it. These days, I don't have the time and like Chew said, I just want the experience.

That's about how many tries it took me on normal. It doesn't seem like a lot, but it is kind of a long battle. Anything beyond 2 or 3 tries and I'm bound to get aggravated.

I like top play some games on the easy setting and would never in my life pay for a strategy guide.

I usually play the Call of Duty series on easy as the games are too damn short anyway and I love the rush I get out of it.

Games like Red Dead (where I believe there is no difficulty setting?) and GTA.....I really don't care how hard they are because of how caught up I get in them.

Red Dead doesn't strictly have a setting to adjust the difficulty of the game, but it does have settings for Casual, Normal, or Expert aiming, which certainly does affect the difficutly of the game.

Creatively challenging games are fine, multi option characters and variety in solving a problem are good.

The insane speed and dexterity aspects get old quick. Maybe things were different when I was a kid, but I like video games for different reasons now.

When the SNES was the latest and greatest system, I'd often stay up late nights trying to beat games on the hard difficulty just for the bragging rights and the personal sense of accomplishment. Now I don't give a damn. I did replay Arkham Asylum on hard, but that was just because I wanted to play the game again and didn't want the exact same experience I had last time.

That's me on Goldeneye online....... I'm hooked and love every minute of it, but I'm terrible. When I do team conflict,the rest of my team has to step up and carry my dead weight. I have gotten better about not getting killed a lot, but I usually get one to two kills and that's it. I got 3 one time, my team lost, but I was thrilled. I guess I'm not a good team player.

This is me as well. I usually play single player games on easy or normal just to experience them and move on. In multi-player, I usually get my ass handed to me 9/10 times.

the only game i can think of in recent memory that i set on the easy difficulty from the get-go is Dragon Age: Origins. I am not a big RPG gamer and I rarely finish one. However, I had heard good things about this game so I picked it up last year. It is difficult for one game to keep my interest for 40-50 hours. I knew if I didn't play the game on easy and just cruise through that I would never finish the game. It didn't matter anyway, I put 20 hours into it and got bored.

I would say YES.

I always start on NORMAL or whatever the mid level Difficulty is. I'll sometimes go back and try HARD for cheevo points IF the game was any good.

Game informer had an article about game difficulties. One thing that was mentioned was how many games are way off in the difficulty settings because they're based on developers who've played the game daily during development.

Normal is the best for me. Especially since alot of games give you achievements/trophies for finishing it at each difficulty level. Hard or Veteran or Legenadary or whatever they choose to call it just isn't fun.

I play games to relax so I don't need the frustration of playing a game on hard. I don't have much patience either so if something was frustrating me I'd probably give up on it and move on to something else.

If I want a challenge I'll play something like Super Meat Boy where I can play in short bursts, usually one or two stages and I can feel like I've accomplished something.

I always go Normal mode the first few runs through a game, as I'm more about the experience than the challenge. In certain games like the RE series or Gears of War I'll eventually start running through the more difficult modes, but with limited playtime and a huge backlog of unplayed games, that doesn't happen too often.

Like many of you, I have no patience for super difficult games. I tend to play most games on normal though, because I don't find games to be all that hard these days. The only time frustration is fun is in games like N+, where that is the hook. Most other times I just want the experience.