There's some very interesting and telling lines in the 2019 Deep Dive:
Q: What kinds of things are exclusive for pacifica, because you don't want people to just come for the quests and leave and that's it. You want people to keep coming back to the district, so what can people find there.
A: Uhm, I mean ..it .. this is what I meant when I said ..uh..like it's a very fun process to think of these kind of things, because these sorts of characteristics that we give a district directly sort of birth the things that you find there. And uh, amongst the destruction you'll still find people living there. Right uh.... pacifica has a by and large hatian commnunity, and each district has a dominant gang that has taken over there. And for Pacifica this would be the voodoo boys, and unlike the Maelstomers that we saw last year the voodoo boys are deeply ingrained within the community that lives there. And uh.. they're not your typical gang that you might see out there (...he goes on describing the voodoo boys, and that they are cool).
So the question was what kinds of things will keep players coming back to Pacifica beyond quests. Which is a fantastic question, probably one players have asked themselves. And the answer is that the Voodoo boys are a really neat gang. There's lots of red flags looking back in a lot of the interviews. This isn't deceptive, as much as it shows that there is already a misalignment with what people expect to find, and what the game has. I'm not trying to give the dev any crap for his answer, clearly he's put on the spot, and chose to talk about enviromental design. But for some people there is an issue of "What does bring us back beyond quests?"
There are a number of odd things, like they show a scene of you riding a train, they say the game is a full fledged RPG, but have apparently changed that in the marketing post launch. They talk up pacifica and say that the bustling markets are places to by special contraband hardware, but there is nothing really special about the markets in pacifica. They say playful stuff that it's really dangerous walking around and you'll need to use a fast moving bike or armoured car. Are they talking about gameplay or lore? They don't really say, and as we know from the game you can walk around just as well as anywhere else.
It's not as bad as the 2018 trailer mentioned in the article. I wouldn't say there's blatent false advertisement or anything. But, to just take one example: that it's dangerous to walk around Pacifica, and you'll need a fast moving bike or armoured car. What are they talking about exactly? Can you see how players would be confused as they move about the game and don't encounter a game world that is inferred?
