Depends. Some games just kinda want to play it and not try on combat. Other games (one that comes to mind is Witcher 3) I play on the hardest difficulty so you have to use your brain a bit.

normal on first playthrough, hardest on replay

Depends on the genre
Rpg Normal (Hard the only thing that changes it's that you need to grind more usually)
Racing games hardest
Fighting games hardest
Platform games Hard if they have the option
FPS I only play the single player ones (Doom, Wolfenstein , Bioshock, etc) usually on hard
Strategy games, when I'm starting playing easy, to understand how the games works, later I play normally.

I play on the difficulty setting that drives the player to engage with a game’s systems and mechanics. If this is achieved on normal, then I’ll leave it that way; if I’m progressing through a game without feeling engaged, then I’ll bump the difficulty up.

I play most action and role-playing games on hard nowadays because I enjoy the challenge and it makes levelling up and getting upgrades more rewarding and impactful. Character improvements don’t really have the same effect on normal since you can already deal with challenges just fine by default.

i just keep it on normal

Not really. I just dont care if south park or a star wars game is super challenging.

I just want to play a game. I'm not trying to be stressed over a video game.

Only bloodborne. Besides that idc

I usually start on normal though if I start finding it too easy I bump it up a level

I never play on easy because it genuinely just makes games boring/ tedious

I'm the same as OP, usually the difficulty setting below the hardest. But if I hear a game is easy like Spiderman, I'll go straight for the hardest option available. Witcher 3 also felt insanely easy after levelling up a bit on Blood and Broken Bones, currently on Death March and I love it

depends on the game really, but i’ll usually do like the second to hardest difficulty, i played fallen order on jedi master for reference but had to turn down the difficulty for 2 fights

Yeah. Always seem to enjoy it more for Action/RPG etc.

Shooters are a pisstake, I played the new cod on the hardest difficulty and that doubled the games length

no lol

Normal because I want the typical experience/time to finish the game, not some brutal grind-y Dark Souls experience, but also don't want a cakewalk

I play FPS games like cod on veteran but everything else i usually just play on normal

I use to. Made s*** hella frustrating.

Used to go easy now I do normal

God of War was the first game i played on the highest difficulty on the first playthrough

Oh my god that s*** was so f***ing taxing on my brain

usually go 2nd highest, the hardest difficulty usually isn't fun at least for me

Depends on the game. Some games are too east without it and some games the hardest difficulty is just adjusting the numbers so enemies are bullet sponges which aren't fun. Games like Halo where the difficulty makes the AI better are better off played at higher levels.

Normal on first playthrough and I set the difficulty higher for every new playthrough

For example, I play Doom 2 on 'Hurt Me Plenty' when I first played it but after knowing where most of the secrets are, I started to play it on 'Ultra-Violence'

No. Normal is the way the game was intended 98% of the time.

I will only play on a higher difficulty after a first play through, but I play hard games Monster Hunter, Souls games, Ninja Gaiden etc. & I dont need everything to be like that.

Depends on the game tbh

on l4d2 yea

EXPERT REALISM!!!

Start on normal but if the game is replayable enough then yea, s*** like the DMC series I’ll start normal then play through all difficulties. I think not that many games have great difficult adjust meants as well like I’m not tryna fight a f***ing sponge bro

If the harder difficulty is actually done well then I do. Not just giving enemies more health and taking more damage or to the point where it just feels cheap. Also the combat/gameplay has to be good.

If there's 4 difficulties, I usually play on the second highest.

I used to play all games on hardest difficulty as a kid before it sunk in that most are badly designed and all the devs did was make everything an unfun bullet sponge... now it’s just default difficulty mostly

Playing resident evil 4 on professional rn s*** is beautifully frustrating