Gamers, like any other large social gathering, often divide themselves into groups. One of the most basic and widespread divisions is that of gamers who play for fun and those who play to conquer challenges. These are very two separate and distinct groups, and both have different needs, but TheGameReviews’ staff who were present at this year’s Game Developers Conference had a chance to talk with the folks at D3 about how they are going to try and appeal to both with Dark Sector.

Hardcore gamers and casual gamers tend to have different goals for the length of the games they play: a racing game that can be played for just a few hours is a lot different than an RPG, packed full of achievements, which can last literally dozens of hours before ending. The length of time Dark Sector will last, therefore, is something that the D3 team is addressing. According to the interview which was held with Josh Austin, a producer for Dark Sector, the length of time runs from ten to eleven hours of playing, which is, according to the D3 representative, was like "running, head shooting the whole time." It seems, therefore, that while the game is not a long gaming experience, it is a challenging and energetic experience that will satisfy both casual gamers with its relative shortness of playing time and hardcore gamers with the high level of activity within it.

The learning curve is an important issue, as hardcore gamers would just like to leap in with both feet without any guidance, or being shown how to play the game through so they know what to do when the time comes. The D3 group had to strike a balance with this on Dark Sector as well, which they accomplished by implementing a more intuitive tutorial system where if you didn’t make a move at a certain point, the game would tell you how. Therefore, if you do the right thing at the right time, the game will let you alone to do it, and if you hesitate, the game will give you a push in the right direction

Casual players like to enjoy the sights, talk to the people, and go hither and yon while hardcore gamers traditionally prefer to blaze along in a straight line to their destination as they leave their opponents to slowly deconstruct behind them. D3 carefully worked their way “through a lot of iterations with this game” to create a style of gameplay similar to Gears of War, where you know where you have to go but how you get there is entirely up to you. The reason for this is, according to Josh, that “the typical audience for this type of game doesn’t like to get frustrated with trying to figure out where to go,” which lead to D3 going with the system that they did. A previous idea involved giving their players “a little bit more free roam,” but it was discovered that the system “was kind of frustrating and the puzzles were just [annoying and] the intended audience didn’t like that level of thinking.”