Your Initial Difficulty Choice?

[Koh]

Relevant video.




But really, when you first play a game, what difficulty setting do you start with, if you're given a choice?

If it's a series I'm totally new to, I'll always start on Normal, since as a game developer myself, I know that Normal represents the intended learning and difficulty curve set by the developers.  If I'm already familiar with a series, like Puyo Puyo, Mario, or Zelda, I'll always start on the hardest difficulty setting, because I won't be challenged otherwise, and will get bored.


There are games that totally mock the player for playing on anything easier than Normal.  There are also games that totally deny access to content on easier settings.  I can understand the latter, and have played a few games that end prematurely on the easier settings.  I'm okay with that, since those aren't the difficulty curves the developers intended to reward with the shiny things.  The former, I just find hilarious when they get creative with it.