I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point over the years, I decided to always, ALWAYS start new games on the lowest difficulty. This allows me to learn the game mechanics easily, hopefully with the least amount of frustration. If I decide later that it is too easy, I’ll upgrade the difficulty. But, I must say that the desire to replay a game on a higher difficulty after playing on the easiest is extremely rare. DOOM, Thief, and Disciples 2 are the only games that I recall doing this with, but there are probably more. If I find a game too frustrating, confusing or difficult on the easiest difficulty, I am firmly convinced that it is “not for me” and can comfortably move on to the next game in my ridiculously obese backlog.