Easy.
If I like the game and want to play again, I'll bump it up to hard or whatever else they got.
As has been said many times before on Anandtech, there is NOTHING hardcore about playing video games.
Video games are games first and foremost. They provide entertainment. Since I havent seen too many games that actually change the way they play based on difficulty setting, there is no point in going straight to Hard Mode, other than wasting more time taking the same actions over again.
Doom was actually one of those games.
First time I used an editor I found they distinguished item placement by difficulty level.
There were 5, for those of you who dont remember. Levels 1 and 2 had the same item placement, but the ammo boxes gave out twice as much.
4 and 5 were also the same, but on 5 you again had twice as much ammo. Which was a good thing because the monsters respawned.
Thats how they made the game more difficult. On higher settings they would just add more monsters. I actually prefer that method.
Same with items.
Me and some buddies found that we could change the gameplay of the map depending on its difficulty level. You just had to make the keys harder to access, usually behind bunches of monsters in a more remote location.
I wish modern games would use that system. Actually change how it plays on the higher modes.
Baldurs Gate did that a little. The higher modes make it possible for PC's to die permanently. That may sound minor to someone who hasnt played the game, but believe me, it changes everything. If you build up Keldorn to a nice, fat level and watch him get gibbed you have been set back a great deal.
Now you have to go find another warrior and try to get him some XP and get his levels up. Pretty tough because there are a set number of monsters in the game and quests can only be done once. So now you've either got a big fat hole in your party, or a weakling.