Today I admit it - I sometimes play games on easy/casual/beginner whatever it may be. 
 
I'm easily frustrated and get no joy from replaying a segment of a game over and over. I have a job and responsibilities, I want to experience a game and get as much out of it as I can. I don't want to fall into the trap I did in the last generation of having a ton of games that I got through 60% of before getting bored or fed-up because I wanted to beat it on a decent difficulty level.  
 
I was never a high-score gamer, or someone who felt the need to beat people in multiplayer. I play games for the escape and immersion into a new world and approach a game in the same way I approach a novel. I actually appreciate that some games are getting easier in order to move the narrative along. I just don't have the world's best reflexes and it killed me growing up that I couldn't experience games the same way as other people because in many I'd undoubtedly run up against a wall where it just got too hard. 
 
So yes, sometimes, especially if I hear a game has a considerable difficulty curve, I put the setting to easy and if I like the game, maybe I'll play it again on normal. So there, that's off my chest - I'm not proud of it, but I've come to terms with it.

=o
 
prepare to be shunned.

I damn you to gamer hell!!!!!!!

Truthfully I'm too proud to ever play on easy mode, if I find myself stuck on the ''medium/middle/normal'' difficulty, I'll give up and just give me some time off.

You've lost the respect of people who's respect is worthless. Shame.

For me it's like 
Medium: If it's for the story because the gameplay is almost on the wrong side of bad. 
Hard: what I normally play on since stuff harder than that normally isn't unlocked untill you beat the game on Hard anyway. 
Above Hard: For those times where they actually put that in and you don't have to unlock it, that's the thing I'm playing on

Don't see any shame in that at all. We all have a different style of playing games and you're reasons are totally legitimate. I for one play games on easy as well and then work my way up the difficulty levels since I want to enjoy the game for what it is before I challenge myself to it.

I usually play on normal for a first play through but then move up to hard or super hard the next time.  I haven't played on easy in a looooong time.

I played Dragon Age: Origins on easy, mostly because I made the mistake of buying the game for 360 and didn't feel like suffering through any sort of "challenging" gameplay with controls that terrible.  I also swapped to easy mode to fight Matriarch Benezia in the original Mass Effect, but I switched right back to normal afterward.

 I want to experience a game and get as much out of it as I can.

Hey, as long as you're enjoying your game.

I usually play on the hardest difficulty level I feel like I can beat the game on, which is occasionally easy. Sometimes I just want to go along for the ride, so I play on something easy because it's fun to beat the crap out of stuff with no effort.

You're as much a bitch as one of my friends!

" @nail1080: Granted - I didn't say every game - and based on what you've listed, I don't have interest in many of those games (other than Mass Effect 2, which I played through on normal). And while I value strategy, there are some games where I'm willing to dial it back to easy so I can see the whole story.  "

I'm a fan of easy mode myself in some cases like if  it's a terrible game but I want to finish it or I am borrowing the game for a short time. 

As long as you're having fun, then that's all that should matter. That's what games are for.

I'm just the opposite. I will usually play the game on the hardest difficulty from the outset so I don't have to play it twice to get the normal/hard achievements. Of course, this only works if the game in question gives you the normal/easy achievements retroactively for playing on hard. I'm looking at you, Bad Company...

No shame in that at all, I'm the same. Whatever makes a game fun. We don't have anything left to prove to people.

" You may as well just remove the game and piss on it because the people who make the game generally don't put all those gruelling hours into making it so you can come along and run through sections of the game with no thought or skill what so ever. "

" When they added an Easy Mode to NG I cried, when they announced an easy mode for Mega Man I didn't leave my room for a week. "

Far Cry 2 I played on easy, because every time you died you would have to go and walk 30 miles to the mission start and then drive while being constantly attacked 20 miles to the objective.

oh my god

Bravo TC. I'm in the same boat as you.
 
It's all about having fun anyways.

" @nail1080: Bloo bloo poor babby is sad that people are getting options for how they want to play the game. Just don't pick easy mode and let the people who want to play the games on easy play them on easy. And don't cry over stupid video games. They're flashing lights on a screen. Dear lord. "

Sometimes it is a fool's errand to try to play the game how the developer wants you to.

i'm shocked!!!! How could you?!

I play on easy till i grab hold of the controls, that always works.

Hell I play on easy too. When I want some cool cinematic I kill everyone like in an action movie with no problem mentality, I pick it.

" @ztiworoh said:

 I want to experience a game and get as much out of it as I can.

Well then you should play games on harder difficulties. You never experience the game as it should be played on easy. You may as well just remove the game and piss on it because the people who make the game generally don't put all those gruelling hours into making it so you can come along and run through sections of the game with no thought or skill what so ever. I think you need a new hobby.  and examples of games of the top of my head (games if you play them on easy you are not seeing the true game as it is)  Any of the Ninja Gaiden games this gen and last Perfect Dark and PD Zero Prototype Mega Man 10 Mass Effect 2 also any sports game "

I played Dragon Age on easy simply because the combat is so poor, I decided its not worth my effort when the focus of the game is dialogue trees.

I always start on medium and if it's too frustrating, I move down to easy. I find normal is ok in most situations, but on the rare occasion I do play easy. I did play Dark Void Zero on easy since the game was so ridiculously unforgiving (I even found even easy to be hard D:).
 
Have a look at these statistics for Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2 Episode 1 (down the bottom). Both of these graphs show that more people play on easy than hard; yes, it is just two games, but they are the only statistics of this kind I know of. I'd be interested to see similar statistics for other games if they exist.
 
Also, lol at hostility towards people playing games on easy.

Not to affiliate myself with the people who think he's a bad human being for playing video games on easy, but the opinion that the easy difficulty cheapens the experience is legit too.
 
Worse than that though, because people can have different opinions about what the experience should be, I think the easy difficulty just has a way of making people feel a lot less confident. I started on Easy with Guitar Hero 2 and in 2010 I'm still stuck in a hard place between getting 100% on every Medium level song and sucking it up on Hard/Expert. If I had started on Medium or Hard I'd probably be an above average player by now.

I play almost every single game on easy. The only exception being Mega Man. When I play a game all I want to do is relax and have fun. I don't find enjoyment from having to worry every second that I'm going to die. I barely finish a game as is, making me play a section over because I died isn't going to make me want to play it more.

Great.  Do whatever you want to have fun.  I only play games on Normal when I first play through them, because, in my mind, that's how the developers made the game to be played.  It's the most balanced difficulty setting.

" I played Dragon Age on easy simply because the combat is so poor, I decided its not worth my effort when the focus of the game is dialogue trees. "

" @Burns098356GX said:

" I played Dragon Age on easy simply because the combat is so poor, I decided its not worth my effort when the focus of the game is dialogue trees. "

hahaha shit likes this makes me laugh. You played DA on easy because you thought the combat was poor? You know nothing... "

No need to feel ashamed playing games on easy. I always play on easy because, sadly, I suck at video games! I figure I might as well give myself the best chance at finishing them.

" @nail1080 said:

" @ztiworoh said:

 I want to experience a game and get as much out of it as I can.

Well then you should play games on harder difficulties. You never experience the game as it should be played on easy. You may as well just remove the game and piss on it because the people who make the game generally don't put all those gruelling hours into making it so you can come along and run through sections of the game with no thought or skill what so ever. I think you need a new hobby.  and examples of games of the top of my head (games if you play them on easy you are not seeing the true game as it is)  Any of the Ninja Gaiden games this gen and last Perfect Dark and PD Zero Prototype Mega Man 10 Mass Effect 2 also any sports game "

Dude, how pathetic is your life? Honestly. I play all my games on easy on the first playthrough, and I have a blast doing it. I didn't miss out on Bioshock because I played it on Easy. I tried it on Medium and it was too difficult to be enjoyable for me. Video games are meant to be enjoyed. If you want to play them all on the hardest difficulty, cool. Good job. Just don't act like you're better than those who don't and that they are ruining gaming. "

I like a good challenge most of the time. So I'll play on hard.
 
However if I'm getting my ass handed to me attempting to play on the hardest difficulty, i might give up and go to easy. (Like when i tried playing Mass Effect 2 on the hardest difficulty to start off with, and i never played a Mass Effect game before that so i didn't know what to expect.)

Me too 
  
I play games to have fun. Why frustrate myself? 
 
I don't even really want a challenge either, that's what real life is for

I always play on easy. I just want to have fun, not be on top of the leaderboards or anything. I don't see the big deal about it.

" @nail1080 said:

" @Burns098356GX said:

" I played Dragon Age on easy simply because the combat is so poor, I decided its not worth my effort when the focus of the game is dialogue trees. "

hahaha shit likes this makes me laugh. You played DA on easy because you thought the combat was poor? You know nothing... "

Get a life kid. I pity you. "

i always play a game on easy first. then the hardest difficulty