What difficulty do you play on?

If its a FPS like CoD I always go to the highest difficulty to get the achievement/trophy, because I don't want to play the campaign more then once. Everything else I play one above the default difficulty.

I go for normal first, then when I get used to the game. I go on max difficulty.

Mostly for Trophies and such.

I tend to choose the easiest one but recently, and by that I mean in 2011 when Skyrim came out, I realized that doing that makes the game much more boring. Now, if it is a new game, I try Normal or Hard with the idea of mastering it and being able to play on the hardest difficulty.

If there's nothing to gain(achievements,unlockables) from a higher difficulty and/or I'm not familiar with the game I usually go with normal...
If it's a game that I've played before then I go with the hardest difficulty ie: Kingdom Hearts and only a handful of other games...

For the first playthrough i always play in normal for almost most kind of games, while for rhythm and sport games i start from lowest level, increasing the difficulty as i get used to it.

I usually go for hard since normal isn't hard enough for me to be completely honest since they are adding new difficulties like "insane" or "impossible" i enjoy going on those difficulties but I jump on hard first just for a level or two to get a feel for the controls and properly place the correct aim sensitivity for that game before I rush into a killing frenzy like "impossible"

Insane. One does not simply play a game because it is easy.

I start off on normal so I don't have to worry too much about ammo/health all the time and so I can experience the story without getting frustrated. If I liked the game I'll play on a difficulty level up each play-through.

Normal, but once I get the hang of the game I switch to hard if option is available.

A few years ago, I decided to play games on the hardest difficulty available.

Normal and nothing more.

Always on hard, not a lot of things out there have much replay value. Therefore, why not get the most of your money by spending a bit more time with your game on hard? If it turns out it's too difficult you could always retry on a lower difficulty.

If there is a setting labeled "Normal" I choose that; I consider what is "normal" as to being what the developer wants as a standard.

If its labeled "Medium" then I, out of pure neuroticism, will think that's not what the designer though as standard and pick a harder difficulty.

Labels like" Insane" and "Nightmare", anything presented as being the hardest without being the only setting above "Medium", I don't go for on the first run, but always try to make it that for my second run after learning the system on the first playthrough.

Everything gets cranked up to highest difficulty.

No jerking around.

I like my games to be hard as hell.

Usually the hardest difficulty to get the trophies/achievement out the way...

Normally I start in hard, that way, if there are difficulty challenges or archivements/trophies, I can do them in one playthrough, if I can do the extras or hidden objetives in other difficulties, I try doing them if the game its worthy.

always the hardest. otherwise, i tend to get bored and start something else.

I usually start in hard. If the game is well done and balanced, I'll be very happy with the challenge.

On RPGs I play normal and abuse exploration to find everything, the go max difficulty and conlude on easy
On Shooters I start out on max difficulty then go lower till i hit easy (rock bottom)
On Hack and slash I go on insane max difficulties then easy and end on normal..

I know i'm one crazei gamer..

I hate games that force me to play through once before I can play on a harder difficulty, except games where higher difficulty means enemies are multiple levels stronger than you, like borderlands.