I've played through games both ways before. I've enjoyed games with a good hard challenge and also I've enjoyed them with all cheats on (extremely easy mode).

I've played a lot of games, I imagine most people on here could say the same. I'm not the best at anything although I'd say I was above average in my "skills." (I've found I'm getting slower in my old age.. now that I've reached my 3rd decade)

I prefer games that get the formula just right. They're difficult and sometimes require several retries on certain hard fights to get through but it's definitely possible if you practice enough. The original half-life got it right. I played until the last boss without any cheats, I don't think I even glanced at a faq. I'd have to reload often, save my game often but I managed to get through almost all of it.

The old Mega-man games were good for a real challenge and yet they were possible to beat and a lot of fun doing it.

Adventure games are often where I don't care about difficulty. In fact I don't care about challenging puzzles. All I want is to experience the story. The good ones are longer than movies and have the visual and auditory experience that novels lack. (don't get me wrong, I enjoy novels and movies both)

Sometimes I'll play a shooter that is just rediculous. Either the gameplay is boring or it just might feel stupid. I'll find some cheats, load 'em up and blast through the game for the storyline and the experience.

If you made it this far, there's another type of game that does it right... it's the kind where you can get through okay... but every time you see a single point missing from your health you just can't help but feel you could do better if you reload. Half-life had that a little. One of the games that really shined with it for me was Max Payne. I remember dropping through a roof window into a room with like 4 or 5 guys and blasting them to bits. I'd lose a few health getting hit once.... so I'd reload and do it again until I killed all of them without getting hit once. I could have easily kept on going, accepting the loss of some health.. which would have made the game easier. I challenged myself though.

Another game like that is Jedi Knight 2. Every time you fight a sith you want to go back and do it again, especially if you lose health.

Finally, one challenging game that just kept me coming back. The first real challenge I felt I defeated was Street Fighter 2. I beat m Bison on the hardest difficulty. (it wasn't turbo and .. I'm not telling who I used :) Just say it was something I tried and tried and tried... and probably months after first owning the game, I beat it.