What brightness do you play at?

[ThatOneDude]

I always play at moody for a number of reasons. For one, it makes torches and all light in general look much more smooth and natural. However, I also prefer the darker feel to the world. I started a new world recently, and spent my first night hiding inside of a 3x4 hole in a mountain. I made a window in the mountain side to provide light for myself, and so I'd know when it was day. I have a pretty dark monitor, and with my brightness down to moody, it was completely pitch black in my hidey-hole. The only thing you could see was the stars from the 1x1 window. It was terrifying, and amazing.
I feel like turning up your brightness ruins that feeling. The purpose of lighting in Minecraft isn't only to prevent mob spawning, it's to grant you the ability to see. It seems that a lot of people have forgotten this. Remember pre-1.8, when you couldn't change the brightness? When you could get lost in a cave without any torches, and you couldn't just turn up your brightness to navigate your way out?

Being in that hole, not knowing where I was or even which direction I was facing, it was awesome.
Turning your brightness down adds a whole new level of suspense to nighttime. In the darkest time of the night, even when you're outside, everything is nearly pitch black. If you're outside and you see the sun setting, you'd better get home, or you won't be able to until the morning. Darkness is an entire aspect of Minecraft that can be avoided by adjusting a slider that's built into the settings menu.

[ExpHP]

I must admit, I play on Bright. The problem with Moody is that, on my monitor, I can still see everything. In effect, if I'm recording a video or streaming, playing on Moody will fail to prevent me from doing things in the dark, and it will only serve to degrade the quality of the video for the viewers.

I'd love to have an experience like what you had, but even Moody isn't dark enough for me.

[myrkana]

moody, but my screen is naturally a bit lighter so everything is a bit on the light side for me even on moody. Where as my boyfriend's computer is on moody and I can barely see in the dark over there.

[SterlingRed]

My screen tends to be a bit on the dark side. I usually play around 20% or so though. It's easier to see the effective range torch light has in preventing mob spawns at lower brightness levels, which is why i prefer it. Otherwise the brightness makes no difference to me in other game activities.

[Six]

This is a great example of where I sabotage my play experience to some extent. I think everything looks a lot better on moody, but I often find myself pumping it up to max brightness simply because it makes it easier to see in caves. I think Minecraft could use one of those "move the slider till you just can't see the middle picture" things.

[Vexalor]

Strangely enough, on my monitor, the difference between Bright and Moody is not great in terms of actually being able to see things at light level zero. Either way, I can generally see just about everything. I always keep it on Bright because I personally think blocks and such look better to me on that setting and I'm used to it. It might be related to my dislike for Smooth Lighting, which I keep off because I don't think it looks Minecrafty enough.

[jakerman999]

I'm a bit weird... I play on moody until I have a carrot farm. Then I max brightness...

[Mr_Hosed]

Moody, because I like the dark ominous feeling when caving and find it easier to spot potential spawn locations in my base.

[Xeo]

Strangely enough, on my monitor, the difference between Bright and Moody is not great in terms of actually being able to see things at light level zero. Either way, I can generally see just about everything. I always keep it on Bright because I personally think blocks and such look better to me on that setting and I'm used to it. It might be related to my dislike for Smooth Lighting, which I keep off because I don't think it looks Minecrafty enough.

Afaik, the brightness setting does not affect the visual appearance of light level 0. Black is black, however on moody roughly 0 - 3 all look so dark that they are almost the same.

[dawnraider]

Yes, it does affect level 0. On my screen, 0 is visible and I can make out details at bright, while moody is near pitch black (still can kind of barely see)