Difficulty all depends on what you're out to get from a game. If easy battles won't kill the immersion for you, and you still feel like you're "role playing" as you should, then why not?

I've actually been tempted many-a-time to burn through a game on easy just because it'll save me time.

Did you wimp out?  No, certainly not.  And anybody who thinks you did is a fool.  You're not a masochist, and your time is precious.

The reason, however, I tend to play games on normal or hard is that I fear I will become too comfortable using the "win button(s)" of the gameplay mechanics and end up mindlessly breezing through the game (especially in more complex games like RPG's).  Harder difficulties usually encourage, if not require, the player to be more adventurous and adaptive with the combat mechanics.  I like to feel that I'm fully experiencing everything the developer created, gameplay-wise.

Now, if that doesn't bug you, and you're really only in it for the story, characters, and overall experience, then everything I just said is essentially irrelevant.  But it is something to consider.  How did you end up approaching the combat/gameplay?

@ Bryan, Something that I didn't mention in this post was that in Dragon Age you can actually adjust the difficulty at any time in the menus. Knowing that, I periodically switched back to normal difficulty. I realized that the main difference in gameplay was that on casual mode I didnt' have to obsess over my party members as much. On normal difficulty I had to micro manage my party members health and mana usuage.  So basically playing on casual allowed me to focus more on my main character and let the AI deal with the rest of the party.

Personally, I don't particularly like difficulty settings in any form. Most of the time, they are merely arbitrary variable modifiers for obstacles in the game. For example, going up X-Com's difficulty settings doesn't translate to [i]smarter[/i] A.I. for enemies. Instead, the aliens in the game just have increased health, damage resistances, and accuracy modifiers.

I'd much rather difficulty be something innate to gameplay systems, of which Demon's Souls is a perfect example. The game is as difficult or as easy as the thoroughness of your understanding of the underlying mechanics.

If you consider difficulty any sort of deterence to finishing a game, then I would say, go with easy if you know that will get you to the end of the game.

Take a game like FF13... I don't recall a difficulty setting, and while I will admit, I am in the midst of playing it now, the story/characters have got me totally immersed.

I think many would agree that immersion is the key to getting any player to finish about any game, regardless of the difficulty ('cept the "Rainman" savants out there hell bent on Achievements). So, while I can't say I am all about starting any game I can at "easy" mode. If I am completely immersed in a story, the difficulty level can be a hinderance. Most recently with Mass Effect 2. Which I recall I tried to start at "Insanity" but ultimately leveled it down so I could actually continue the story. I did so with no regrets, but now with DLC and a higher level to start a 2nd playthru with, I am just looking for the time to get in some ME2.

As you mentioned, gamers grow up and their tastes and inclinations change. To think of the idea of playing a game wrong is absurd. Outside of adopting any of a number of cheating tactics that are genuinely against how the developers designed the game, breezing through on Easy or Casual should be no different than slogging through Very Hard or Sadistic. 

I picked up Halo Reach on launch day and resolved to fight my way through Heroic based on the word that Bungie wanted it played that way. About three levels in, just like Rob said in the above comment, the only difficulty I was experiencing was from an A.I. that leaped from smart to cheating in the blink of an eye, leading to one of the most frustrating first-person experiences I've ever fought through. Had I just put aside my gamer pride and played through a single skill level lower, I probably wouldn't have hated that game quite so much and sent it back as readily.

More and more gamers rail against not being taken seriously and just want to be seen as a serious form of entertainment. The first step towards that is accepting that there are different play styles and skill levels that facilitate varying difficulty levels and move towards focusing on sharing our experiences rather than excluding certain groups just because they played it differently than another.

I do the same thing. But like you mentioned, if the point of the game is to challenge me, I'll opt for the normal setting.

And I think RPG's are great games to play on easy. Like you said, it's all about being immersed in the world.

Where is that image at the top from?

"Pile of shame" -- terrific stuff!

My own includes Bioshock and Red Dead Redemption even though I've enjoyed every minute of them that I have played.  I have often opted for the lazy gamer experience and just fired up the multiplayer.  That said, I agree that the gaming experience is one that offers many levels of enjoyment and, to perhaps a lesser extent, accomplishment.  I think therein lies the crux of the difficulty dilemma.

I played Mass Effect on easy because I wanted to see the end and without it, I would not have had the wherewithal to get to conclusion, be it time or skill or persistence.  But I've also logged hundreds of hours playing Guitar Hero, started on medium and made the progression to expert though there will always remain songs I cannot complete or will never five-star. 

Yes, there's this machismo/pride about playing on the increased difficulty, but there's a certain satisfaction that is only attained with the sacrifice of time and effort.

I know more and more of my friends are doing that, because they simply don't have the time these days. I wonder if it's an older-generation thing....

My two recent examples: I'm playing through co-op PixelJunk Monsters with my girlfriend, and we tried "normal" at first, but it's just way too hard to do those levels perfectly to score the rainbows (which give you access to later areas). We decided to go "casual" mode.

Modern Warfare 1 and 2...I played on Veteran, for Achievement purposes. I just recently started on Black Ops, and I opted for Hardened...one below the most difficult (Veteran), one above normal. Yeah, that's not the same as going "Easy" but I just didn't want to keep pounding my head against the wall over and over just for more Achievements. :)  I think I'm wimping out!

I love the "pile of shame," perfect description! I tend to lend the games I haven't finished out to friends so they aren't sitting there judging me when I return with new ones. However, I can always grab them back if I decide to take some vacation time. 

Gaming will always be there, and although it is ridiculous to think anyone should go longer than 3 days without picking up a controller;  there are other things. Work. Family. Friends. There is no shame in playing through on Easy or Casual mode, as long it's still fun to play.

I agree with all of the above sentiments. I'm playing through Fallout 3 now on easy for the exact same reason you did with Dragon Age: the story and characters are the important parts of the game, not how easily you can be killed by an enemy.

Plus, with all the bugs and freezes Fallout is prone to, the game is already hard enough to get through!

It's wonderful to see someone articulate those same feelings I had when I made "the switch."  It is a bitter pill to swallow at first, but I wouldn't have it any other way at this point. 

For the most part I think developers are very good at pinpointing the fun aspects of their game and keeping it that way through various difficulty levels.  There are times when "easy" translates into "dumb" (i.e. Mega Man 10) and I keep it on the standard difficulty.

I played Dragon Age (one of my favorite games of all time) on Normal and Nightmare with my first -- and main -- character when I went through the game, expansion and every DLC. To me it would have been too boring on easy as you don't need to set any tactics, you can just steamroll enemies by looking at them.

However, I did play other playthroughs (which total over 400 hours) on easy so I could see how different it was with other origin stories and decisions...which still only scratched the surface of that game's content.

Call of Duty is not fun on veteran, but those darn achievements get me every time. I always play the campaign twice, once on normal and once on veteran.

I'm also not against playing on easy so I can just experience a game's story if it doesn't change gameplay too much. I just don't have the time anymore to dedicate to redo challenging areas in games.

Ah, I know exactly what that pic references, The two bosses from Touhou Project: Imperishable Night. Imperishable Night is notorious for having the easiest of Easy Modes in the series. And from the games I've played that aren't IN, you can't even fight the final boss on Easy Mode. This is just one of the multiple memes based on such an obscure but beloved independent franchise.