Of course, difficulty is relative.  Far cry's normal mode is like DOOM3's nightmare mode.  I just like a difficulty mode that is challenging, but I don't have to try 10 times to get past each level.

If it is a relatively short game, and I beat it on normal, I playthrough on Hard. If someone else beats the game in front of me (RE4), I play it myself on a harder difficulty.

Also, if you get goodies of any kind from a second playthrough on Hard, I might try that, but for default settings, I always start off on Normal.

 Thanks.  I do love raunchy humor as well, but as you said, dads need to be careful and tell certain kinds of jokes.  For instance...Do you know the best thing about Alzheimers?  You get to meet new people everyday.  I think I'll add that one to my sig and another I just thought of.

Speaking of difficulty, I hate it when you have to play a game thru normal difficulty to play it on Harder modes. I have had it happen to me on RE4, Metroid Prime 3 and Prey that I beat them on Normal, unlocking Hard. When I came back to the game several months later, my saved games were gone, preventing me from playing on hard. Makes me angry.

Demo's i play on easy.

Most games I'll play on normal just because I feel that's the way the game was designed to be played by the creators. And I find with some game where I've challenged myself with harder mode I end up getting half way though then finding myself stuck.

Normal/Medium

 That pretty much sums up my feelings exactly.  The easier or harder difficulties are just artificial variations on their original vision.

One game that has no difficulty is final fantasy. Especially Final Fantasy X. The thing I like the most about that game is it gets more challenging the farther you get into the game.

I usually only play on 'Hard' if it unlocks something good, otherwise it's 'Normal'.

I'm a normal guy, so I play normal difficulty.

Un-related: My Sgt. plays videogames. One day when we were at a local diner, he said he beat some game (can't remember wich) on hard. I turned on my wireless voice recorder and asked him "You beat it on what level?" he replied "I beat it on hard". I replayed that 3 second clip for days to anyone who'd listen! He was so pissed. It was his fault, though. Mom and dad should have warned him about "beating it on hard"!

I'm such a kid.