Just a thought I've always wondered about others. If ever prompted with a “Choose your difficulty” screen upon first boot, I always go with the hardest difficulty that isn’t a permadeath mode… even though my preference isn’t typically to play something that’ll test my patience. IDK why I am that way lol but always have been.

What about you?

I like my games like I like my eggs, over easy.

I play games to relax, unwind, and de-stress after a long hard day, I want to be able to kick back and enjoy them without being frustrated or having to sweat and struggle.

Normal or hard.

But I generally dislike when difficulty is optional because it’s most often poorly made.

I like difficult games that force me to come up with a strategy to make them easier.

That strategy also needs to be "classy" and genuinely interesting. If the game's strategy boils down to "don't get one-shotted > pause the game to chug endless healing items > brute-force your way through > repeat..." then the game has failed monumentally at creating a good challenge.

Unless there’s a requirement to playing on x difficulty to 100% the game then it’s being set to easy mode. Tho, Soulslike is my favourite genre so … 

I always go for normal/balanced. It's supposed to be the way the game was designed to be enjoyed for most people. I like to have a fair challenge so that what I do actually matters and I can't just run through pressing random buttons. On the other hand, I don't want to get frustrated and repeat things over and over because of the difficulty. That can feel like artificially making things harder than they have to be.

Depends.

If I think the game will be too easy > play on hard.

If I think the game will be too hard > play on easy.

If I have no idea> play on normal.

On a first playthrough, typically I'd go with the hardest difficulty for games that have 3 settings. Or the 2nd highest if it has 5 or more. I just no longer enjoy easy game much, they eliminate "thinking/assessing/reacting/executing" which are the funnest part of gaming to me. There gotta be a challenging aspect to games, be it in the moment to moment action, in the form of puzzle solving, strategizing, or anything! Otherwise I prefer movies, cartoons, comics, TV shows over gaming.

But there isn't a universal rule that applies to everything. Some difficult games feel cheap, poorly-balanced, or just not fun or rewarding. Apart from some SHUMPS for example (which can be beaten in just 30 to 45 minutes), I generally don't like the "instant death" thing. And some easy games can be made fun via chasing highscores or self-imposed restrictions/handicaps. Easy games can still be enjoyed through story, music, visuals, charm, humor and so on, but most of them would benefit from higher difficulty settings that require some skill to unfold.

I've just tried returning to Where Winds Meet after a 6 months+ long pause, and now it's kind of overwhelming and too difficult for me (playing on the hardest setting). But I don't want to lower the difficulty, because then the game wouldn't let me turn it back up! It's a dilemma.

I never really play on easy. Typically I choose normal as it is intended to be played. If I really like a game I will replay it on hard. For a nightmare mode, the game has to be really good

I almost always choose the normal or standard difficulty. If the difficulty setting notes that it's the developer's intended experience, even better. It's important for me to start at the default setting and work upward from there.

In general, I want games that provide plenty of pushback, but give me the tools I need to overcome all challenges.