The only games that I don't enjoy on the highest difficulty that I have played, is the Metal Gears.
Although, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty was fun on Extreme (which still wasn't the highest difficulty).

Daed.

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Original post by xycos 1. What difficulty level do you usually play at (Very Easy, Easy, Medium, Hard, very Hard).

It depends on what changes with the difficulty levels. In most cases I prefer to play on normal or hard, unless ramping up the difficulty means that the AI gains unfair advantages. I'm okay with the AI cheating if the cheating isn't obvious, but that's not the case with most games so I'd rather just avoid the frustration.

On the other hand, I love games where higher difficulty levels effect the gameplay in some meaningful way. Reducing the amount of power-ups in the world or the numbers of hits the player can survive are all pretty cool in my book and I'll usually play on higher difficulty settings if that's what changes.

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2. Would you rather a game be too easy or too hard?

Too hard, but it shouldn't be either. The game should be winnable on any difficulty setting without being frustrating. The normal difficulty setting shouldn't be either too difficult or too easy for what you perceive as the "average" gamer.

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3. In an action-adventure game, would you be more frustrated by too-difficult puzzles or too-difficult combat?

It depends, but I'd generally say that difficult puzzles are far, far more frustrating. The problem with most puzzles is that they're mostly out of the player's hands. In essence, you're now competing against the puzzle's designer, not the game itself. For well-done puzzles this is okay, but difficult or obscure puzzles can be frustrating - especially when you start running out of things to try.

Combat that's "too hard" is frustrating too, but at least the player feels in control the entire time. You're not clicking around a room randomly and hoping to click on the right thing, you're interacting with the game and (generally) seeing exactly what it is you're doing wrong.

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4. What's the hardest game you've FINISHED? The easiest?

I'm honestly not sure, so I'll skip this.

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5. Have you ever stopped playing a game soley because it was too difficult or too easy, and, if so, which one(s)?

Not that I recall. At least, not any recently.

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6. Which of the following are good ways to make a game more difficult?

Better AI is the absolute best way to increase a game's difficulty, in my opinion. Unfortunately, this means you have to retard the AI on lower difficulty levels and create an artificially easier experience. In an ideal world, I'd vary the level of teamwork and tactics enemies use with the difficulty level. This way, individual enemies don't seem particularly dumb at lower difficulties.

Barring that, my favorite way of upping the difficulty is by altering the player's stats. Doing so forces the player to try different game styles. If you can take less damage, suddenly you have to be more careful about drawing in a large number of enemies. I like this more than increasing NPC stats since I don't think doing so makes a meaningful impact on gameplay. The AI enemies are harder to beat, but only in the sense that you have to shoot them a few more times.

I absolutely would't reduce the number of available saves by difficulty level. Limited saves are just bad game design.

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7. What should be the difficulty ramp of a game (i.e. how much harder should the final level be than the first non-tutorial level)?

The difference in difficulty between the first and last levels isn't as important as how smoothly the difficulty increases. You generally want a smooth difficulty curve - smooth enough that the player doesn't even notice. Make each level just a bit harder than the last and you'll probably find a good pace. Jumping the difficulty up significantly at any point, even for the big final boss fight, is just going to make the player frustrated.

In short: The last level should be a lot harder than the first level, but not much harder than the second to last.