...Or are we just wasting our time?

It would be nice to hear from UBI/REFLECTIONS in this forum, as I am getting tired of feeling like we're just talking amongst ourselves and they're not even reading or listening to their customer base.

I guess it's like praying. Sometimes God will grant our wishes, other times he won't (I am a catholic by the way, I don't mean to be religious). That's the way I see it. But just be patient... Find something to kill the time until we get an announcement (hoping sometime in 2007 or 2008). Good things happen to those who wait.

They will never appear on the forum and say "This is Reflections, we like your ideas and will implement what we can into the new game."

But I've read on many game company forums that they do in fact READ the fans thoughts and wishlists regarding the new game, as it's being made for the fans in the first place in most cases, along with future fans to the series.

Sometimes, a Forum Moderator (Atari forum) will appear and say that the developers do in fact visit the forum from time to time to see what the story is.

Other times, you'll see printed in magazines developers who read the forums about their game for feedback on how to make it more appealing/better.

I believe Reflections has in fact visited this forum. Whether they'll actually like our ideas is another story, since it is their game to make, but it would be wise to at least consider what dedicated fans are saying they want to see in the new Driver.

I can understand their reluctance to participate in the forums.
They don't want to give out too much information too soon and box themselves in, but even politicians have press conferences.
All they'd have to say is "no comment" when asked something they didn't wish to answer.
I think it would be great for everyone involved if they had more presence in the forums.
Fans would flock here to have their opinions expressed, and the feedback, both positive and negative, would surely benefit the game.
But I think it's to early in the development stage for them to visit right now.
I'm hoping they will soon and I have no doubt they will eventually, as the game draws closer to release.

Most game developers usually look around everywhere in all different places to see what everyone thinks about the game. The Forums, the reviews everything... Because after it is there game and most developers like to see what everyone things about it.

Reflections have said they lurk around the forums. So most likely there reading this post now with a slight smile on their face. But of course there not going to post. It's like having a building full of Steve McQueen fans and Steve McQueen walks through the door. Everyone tramples over everyone trying to ask for signatures and millions of questions.

But sure out of 150+ developers in the team one would be able to tell us something, but maybe they have to sign some sort of contract.

My guess is that they read all the driver related forums all around the place, that includes these forums... the big gaming review companies forums like gamespot and ign as well as neoseeker and all the fan sites forums, like Driver Madness, Planet Driver and Driver-Dimension etc...

Because all around all those forums out there people are expressing their, ideas and all there interesting findings which should be of major interest to the development teams.

So if there not reading the forums, well then that's there problem because there missing out on all the ideas we have and if they are they'll make us all happy and then we won't be wasting our time.

But I can assure you there at least reading forums, I'm just not sure which ones.

Agreed. The first forum they'll look to would be their own, this one from Ubisoft.

As far as companies go, most developers have to sign a confidentiality contract, which states that 'in no way' can they spill any information on the game without the companies prior approval, such as for previews.

So that's one explanation why they'll never likely post and interact on the forum. I remember Reflections held a chat session for questions not long before DPL was released, which was helpful.

Another reason they wouldn't post, is to deter imposters from pretending they are employees and so on.

Yeah, that would happen a lot, people trying to pretend there from reflections and start saying, "Hi, I'm Gareth Edmondson" how may I help you". It'd be too good to be true.

and then we move onto the subject of ex-employees. I remember GTA had em. and he made a thread for himself on one of the most popular gta forums and he answered all sorts of questions about the psp versions of the game LCS or SA I can't really remember. A few months before the game was even released.

I think that it would be nice to see another developer chat since it's been so long. But once again you think what's the point. There is really not much point because people are going to ask questions about the next driver game which hasn't even been announced. I guess it's an awesome way to announce a game. But with all the questions after you'd have to be a lot more cautious about not giving away too much info at an early point.

and then for all the other questions, questions the developers may not want to attend to since it wouldn't be more focused on the next game. It'd be more focused on the previous games. One of the main questions I'd be asking is all about modding, including things like "-developer" commands. Getting into those achieves and editing the models and things like that, things they may want to avoid.

Then we have thing like bugs found in the game, they wouldn't really want to be forced into listening to some of the bugs, which really wanted a problem in dpl (pc) but the main problem was the deactivated online mode as well as few other things like "draw distance" the draw distance was alright but how good everything else is it kind of holds the game back a bit. You shouldn't be able to see things pop onto the screen even if it is at least 300 in-game meters away.

But yeah, it'd be awesome to be able to speak to Reflections again. I'm not just sure if it'd be so awesome for them. When people kind of pressure them for information they don't want to release.

See Driv3r credits.....

This reasoning that people would pretend to work for Reflections doesn't fly. Some of the most successful titles always have someone from the dev team online. It's hard to lie when someone who knows is online too!

It would be easier to say you work for Reflections here, than on a site where a dev-team member is actively involved in the community.

Bottom line: It's just inconsiderate on the dev-team/publisher's behalf and limits the number of people who participate (AND BUY THE GAME), not wanting to just blow a bunch of hot-air in a forum that isn't making or breaking any ground work with the dev-team and/or publisher.

If I was a developer at Reflections, I'd watch the forums for fan feedback, but would not actually participate, other than to say, "We're reading your ideas, but cannot guarantee most of them will make it into the new game".