I believe a game is meant to teach the mechanics and allow the player to master them and display their skills in a series of increasingly difficult challenges. That’s what I find to be the most rewarding part of video games. I think depending on the type of game, difficulty options may work, however seeing 5 different difficulty options straight off the bat is also pretty overwhelming. I think if the game is great at introducing and developing its gameplay concepts at a good pace, then the player should naturally be able to see their abilities improve to conquer any challenges the game poses. Obviously it’s not going to be applicable to everyone which is unfortunate. Personally a game’s challenge to me doesn’t feel as rewarding knowing that someone who could have played it with little to no challenge got the same experience as me so that’s really what kills it. I guess different rewards for a more challenging difficulty like achievements or secret cutscenes are nice. Maybe even a super hard boss in a game with no difficulty options could be a solution. ¯_(＾ω＾)_/¯ Hard to say obviously because each game itself is a case to case basis.