My first playthrough one or two notches below default.
The rest of the time I play on default.
I have no interest whatsoever in making the game 'harder' or 'more challenging' in those aspects the slider influences, thats really not why I play games.
Oh I wish difficulty sliders influenced puzzles and riddles and such. If there existed a slider that could make the puzzles fiendishly difficult, I would put it all the way to the right.

Depends on if it gets absurdly difficult in a tedious way like Oblivion did.

Default..

Default is fine by me, later I'll probably make it harder.

Back in Morrowind, I could put it on the hardest difficulty, but with Oblivion, it just didn't feel right doing that.

default of course!

I generally never even look at the difficulty slider. If after my first playthrough, I find the game too easy, I will download mods which increase the difficulty. I used OOO in Oblivion and FWE as well as MMM in Fallout 3, but I never touched the difficulty settings.

I enjoy the story and quests and exploration more than than the click, click, clicking to complete a battle. Regardless of how difficult the battle is, I will prevail just like most of us will. I see little sense in clicking like a wet hen clucks to complete something I am positive I can do anyway. :shrug:

So, I generally turn it down just a bit from default just to save my fingers from arthritis pain and get the job done in short order and get on with my roleplaying, quests and exploration. On one run through per game (if I'm that interested) I will turn it all the way up just to assure myself that I can which of course I can as can most of us.

Hard, but probably the first 'survival' or 'hardcoe' mod that gets made.

I am playing Fallout3 again at the moment, and I find that Normal Difficulty is about right.

You know why? Because the game is balanced around normal difficulty. The weapon damage is designed around normal difficulty, and enemy toughness is designed around normal difficulty. When I hit a human with bullets from an assault rifle, the damage is what I expected it be.

When you turn the difficulty-bar way up, you get enemies who are borderline invulnerable. And it is just silly how many rockets it takes to kill someone. I don't play to have a tough time, but to have fun. And Normal is meant to be the most fun.

Normal, as always. I've never changed the difficulty in Oblivion or Fallout 3. (Only played MW once, but I'm sure I used Normal there as well.)

Erm, how should I know? Not a clue as to how hard it will be, so I'll start out with default and go from there :shrug:

I just leave all settings as defaults so thats what i'll do with skyrim.

I'd probably try a very hard one if difficulty didn't equal the enemy one shotting me. (Difficulty is supposed to be able to overcome, not die instantly)

Depends on what the different levels actually mean. If it just means creatures have more hit points, eh, hell with that. Though I suppose it would mean the rewards would be higher since you'd have to make more skill tests per combat.

Probably default. But if Hard is implemented to make things more interesting, maybe Hard.