Does anyone else see Easy Mode as the Cinematic mode?

Because I do, whenever I first pick up a game, doesn't matter the genre, I always play the single player first, mostly to get used to the mechanics and what not. But do you also do your first playthrough on easy? I do, I'm not afraid to admit it. I get funny looks when I set the difficulty on easy when I have a friend over. I like to experience the campaign's story. The way I see it is that the campaign is my story teller, every death is an interruption of the story it's trying to tell me. What's wrong with cutting down on the interruptions? I'm sure I'm not the only one who likes to immerse them self within a game. After I beat the game my first time, I'll play it again this time looking for a challenge and notch it up to it's hardest difficulty. I can't be the only one who does this, right?
I'm a hardcore gamer, and I play on easy.

Because I do, whenever I first pick up a game, doesn't matter the genre, I always play the single player first, mostly to get used to the mechanics and what not. But do you also do your first playthrough on easy? I do, I'm not afraid to admit it. I get funny looks when I set the difficulty on easy when I have a friend over. I like to experience the campaign's story. The way I see it is that the campaign is my story teller, every death is an interruption of the story it's trying to tell me. What's wrong with cutting down on the interruptions? I'm sure I'm not the only one who likes to immerse them self within a game. After I beat the game my first time, I'll play it again this time looking for a challenge and notch it up to it's hardest difficulty. I can't be the only one who does this, right?
I'm a hardcore gamer, and I play on easy.

I believe this video aptly summarizes my opinion on this matter:
 
 

I just play on Normal. Best of both worlds! Challenging, but not too challenging to not let me enjoy the story. 

When it comes to games that have an online component that I intend on competing in, I usually play on the hardest difficulty. It's like training wheels for the online world. But I do see where you're coming from.
 
And when it comes to games whose online components I have no vested interest in... I guess I still play towards the hardest difficulty. I'm pretty good at shooters, so I appreciate the challenge. I recently played through ODST for the first time and started out on Heroic. Well worth it.

Chances are, if I'm looking for a cinematic playthrough, I'm looking for it on YouTube or something. And it's usually because I want to get caught up on the story for a franchise that has a sequel on a platform I have, but with earlier titles on a system that I don't have. For example, Bad Company 2 came out on PC, but BC1 didn't. So I watched the campaign before BC2 launched. I imagine someone with a PS3 has done the same with Mass Effect now that ME2 will be coming to that system. 
 
On that note, the only time I've actually used easy mode consistently is with Mass Effect where I wanted to get a character from one end of the game to the other as fast as possible without having to resort to using someone else's unsatisfactory character saves.

" When it comes to games that have an online component that I intend on competing in, I usually play on the hardest difficulty. It's like training wheels for the online world. But I do see where you're coming from. And when it comes to games whose online components I have no vested interest in... I guess I still play towards the hardest difficulty. I'm pretty good at shooters, so I appreciate the challenge. I recently played through ODST for the first time and started out on Heroic. Well worth it. "

I play on the difficulty that would seem the most appropriate for the context of the story because I want to feel the challenge the character would actually have to go through. So essentially, I like playing on what feels right, contextually, unless that is way too hard.

" I just play on Normal. Best of both worlds! Challenging, but not too challenging to not let me enjoy the story.  "

I agree with your sentiment completely, but I do go normal.

I disagree, as i feel the challenge would be too easy and i would not feel the actual shit the character has to go through as well as i would on normal. So i think it takes something away from the story if i were to do that.

I worry more about being challenged. I usually play through on the hardest difficulty, because, especially if I'm moving on to MP, I feel like it gets me most ready for it. 

" I disagree, as i feel the challenge would be too easy and i would not feel the actual shit the character has to go through as well as i would on normal. So i think it takes something away from the story if i were to do that. "

I definitely used to approach the Easy difficulty this way. For a while I played the Halo games in a sort of marathon session, and I did it on the easiest difficulty because I like to think those games are operatic enough to be viewed as a kind of cinema. But I got bored really easily doing things that way, and so now I just play to enjoy myself. I don't feel any satisfaction rolling through a game on its easiest settings, even when story and aesthetic appeal is factored into the equation. 

I usually play on the difficulty the game gives you automatically, because assuming the dev is any good, that's the way the game was intended to be played.

The way I see it, "Normal" is the way the game developers intended you to play their game so that's what I go with. But I'm not adamant about it. I'll lower the difficulty if the game becomes frustrating.

If I find the game enjoyable, I'll play it in three different segments. Initially I'll play it on easy to get the basics of the mechanics/story. Afterwards I'll play it on the highest difficulty. Then if I feel compelled enough, I'll replay on easy.
 
@mikeeegeee said:

" When it comes to games that have an online component that I intend on competing in, I usually play on the hardest difficulty. It's like training wheels for the online world. But I do see where you're coming from. And when it comes to games whose online components I have no vested interest in... I guess I still play towards the hardest difficulty. I'm pretty good at shooters, so I appreciate the challenge. I recently played through ODST for the first time and started out on Heroic. Well worth it. "

I always usually play a game at the Hard difficulty first time through. Something about blowing through the game on Easy or Normal doesn't feel cinematic to me at all. I like to feel the struggle that the game gives out as I almost died, but got through it anyway.  For example going through God of War III on Titan and actually struggling against the gods really made the fights feel cooler. Then again I didn't really get stuck anywhere for like an hour or something, and for some people that chance might be too frustrating when you just want to see the story so I get that.

I never really saw easy as 'the cinematic mode' but I did used to do most of my playthroughs on easy when I was younger. Now I almost always play through games on normal the first time round and only pick easy when I think I'm up against a game that I will find exceptionally challenging. The first time I played through Halo 3 I booted up the game, played through the first level or two on easy and decided I wanted a higher difficulty, I've pretty much always picked normal since then.

Depends on the game, but normally normal is easy enough for it. 

I tend to see "easy mode" as "unlock mode" rather than cinematic mode.  I usually play games on normal (default) first and then go to other difficulty levels depending on how I fared.  I guess if I wanted to just blaze through the story then I would play on that level.  Now, when I did play Halo ODST, I played it on "normal" which is "easy" in the world of Halo because I just wanted to get through it since it was a rental, but if I had paid for it I would have played it on a higher level.  I am interested in extending the life of my games most of the time and playing through a game that challenges me does that.  There are games that require you to play through certain levels or defeat a series of foes in order to unlock all the playable characters, courses, tracks, stages, etc... For those games, I'll use "easy" just to have all my options open for competitive play or for online.

I usually play on normal the first play through, then go to hard. 

No, because first and foremost, I'm playing a game - not watching a movie. In my mind, story in games will always be secondary to gameplay. 

Never. Mostly because games become boring as shit on easy, and you usually don't get achievements for it. 

" I play on the difficulty that would seem the most appropriate for the context of the story because I want to feel the challenge the character would actually have to go through. So essentially, I like playing on what feels right, contextually, unless that is way too hard. "

I usually play it on hard unless I know for a fact that I'll have trouble with the game. If the game becomes too difficult or frustrating, I'll tone it down, but playing on normal or easy seems like a joke to me in most cases. If there are no hurdles or challenges, then I'd rather be watching a movie without having to press buttons every so often since part of what makes games so awesome is the fact that you become the character and experience everything through them and as them which means you need the challenges and difficulty. I'd argue that playing games on easy is like playing that super easy mode on bayonetta which doesn't really make all that much sense to me since those types of games especially have a heavy emphasis on gameplay.

Normal. Way i see it that's how the game was entended to be played. Easy is for the clueless, the person that rarely touches a controller. Hard and above are for people who like a challenge. Normal is perfect.

I agree. There are plenty of games I've tossed on easy because I want to see the story play out, but I don't want to spend my time frustrated at all. The God of War games are the perfect example of this for me. Once I let my mind forget that I was playing on easy, the combat was much more enjoyable, and I made it much further into the game than I would have with a deeper challenge.

There were a couple of good points, though, like playing on harder difficulties to prepare you for multiplayer or whatnot, but I am behind the idea of playing on easy if you just want to see what the game offers.

I also see no problem playing on Easy if you have 5 other unfinished games to get to.

Personally I like to play on at least normal, but it depends on the difficulty. For example, when I get my hands on Halo Reach I intend to start on the hardest difficulty because I've had previous experience with the halo franchise, so I know what I'm doing, and therefore I don't need to "learn". However, when I get my hands on Starcraft 2, I've never really played a Starcraft game before, so I'd pick "Normal" until I knew what I was doing.
 
But if I enjoy a game enough, I'd gradually amp up the difficulty and play through again, until I had beaten it on the hardest.

I usually put the game on the hardest available difficulty from the start. An exception here and there, of course, but I usually go down with the hard until the end.

Normal on first playthrough, Hard on second, Impossible if I really like the game.
 
I never end up touching easy mode

I usually see Easy mode as the mode that you pick up the game on.
 
Let's take DeathSmiles as an example: It's quite easy to get through the game on Rank 1 for the first 6 levels. You will be hard-pressed to get to the scoreboard doing so, but you'll get used to the game. Once you get used to the game, you switch up the difficulty to Rank 2 and eventually Rank 3. Once I start hitting those hard difficulties is when I really start enjoying the games.
 
On a related tangent, unless the "easiest difficulty" is normal (see Gunblade NY and the first US run of Devil May Cry 3), I do not think any review should be based on the easiest difficulty alone.

No. There are many things wrong with that assumption, but here's one:
 
The word "cinematic" implies that all video games have good stories or are directed in a cinematic way. Because no video game designer is capable of writing -- as is evidenced by 99% of video game stories out there -- the deployment of the word "cinematic" is quite erroneous.

I've always set my games to the hardest difficulty when I play a game. I despise playing a game I can't play on the hardest, like it's locked or something. Annoyances!

" No. There are many things wrong with that assumption, but here's one:  The word "cinematic" implies that all video games have good stories or are directed in a cinematic way. Because no video game designer is capable of writing -- as is evidenced by 99% of video game stories out there -- the deployment of the word "cinematic" is quite erroneous. "

" I just play on Normal. Best of both worlds! Challenging, but not too challenging to not let me enjoy the story.  "

" Because no video game designer is capable of writing" confuses me, because I'm pretty sure they hire people that actually write stories to tell the story, the people who make the game simply provide the backdrop, setting, etc. "

either normal or hard for me because if I were to play it over and over on all those difficulties I feel that the game will just get repetitive. Thats why when Halo: Reach comes out I am just gonna jump in on Heroic cause I love the challenge 

I usually start on normal then go to hard then play on easy....unless its call of duty or similar fps games then i start on the hardest difficulty.

I just play on normal or hard.

Most games are already pretty easy these days. Normal is tuned to provide somewhat of a challenge to the casual gamer. I always just leave it on the default difficulty and can't think of the last game that provided much of a challenge or had me dieing enough to interrupt the story. 

Normal. 
 
I enjoy some level of challenge.

" @supermike6 said:

" I just play on Normal. Best of both worlds! Challenging, but not too challenging to not let me enjoy the story.  "

Ditto. "

I do just because I tend to like earning all the achievments individually and well because i dont tend to get a lot of games so i like to make the games i do have last as long as possible before i get around to getting a new one.