depends on the game if its a shooter on a console I play on easy before i increase the difficulty.

Because playing a shooter on a console is like playing a strategy game on PC using a steering wheel.

i usually play on normal.but football games on easy and racing games on hard

Normal, some games like Halo and CoD I'll go back and play it on Legendary/Veteran.

Normal or hard for first run through, depending on the inherent difficulty of the game. I picked hard, because I figure you choose the hardest difficulty you're willing to play on first time through even if that's not what you do 100% of the time.

My first run through TLOU was on hard, but i'm scared of doing extremely hard mode on that game, even after getting through it twice.

your to hard-core for me. 

Generally, normal, then if I liked the game enough, the hardest selectable setting (often an unlocked difficulty).

I put it on pussy-mode. I'm all about the experience and not the challenge. If it doesn't have any easy mode,then I'll just deal with it.

Don't be too humble. 

OT: Start out with normal, normally. If it's a notoriously hard game, I might go easy. Of course I replay games at higher difficulties for fun/trophy purposes. 

But for people that say they play EVERY game at it's highest difficulty are simply lying, or have no life.

I almost always start on normal, but the hard difficulty is usually my favorite. Normal is usually too easy and the "very hard" difficulties are too challenging to be consistently fun (I usually play through the very hard difficulties once to get trophies and then go back to the hard difficulty).

Nintendo games: Hardest mode

Other games: Pansey mode