>>96268718
I've never ref'd before. My ref does it via post, so the pacing is kinda weird.

If I were reffing, I'd refer to the character sheets of my players. If you want to make a player care about your world, involve their character's world in yours.
>A media who's sister is addicted to chems and joins a booster gang.
>Have the player confront their sister during a gig where the sister is hired muscle for the villain.
or
>Rockerboy is trying to get big without selling out. Their old band got bought out by a label.
>The player gets wind of a reunion tour where the label plans to debut a virtual AI version of the player, singing corporate-approved tracks. A gig opportunity arises to infiltrate the concert and delete the AI or replace its programming with an anarchic BD that crashes the stream live.
or
>Solo used to run with the Tyger Claws, but left after things got too brutal.
>A new up-and-coming Tyger leader is trying to clean house and views ex-members as liabilities. The player has to choose between protecting their old friends, cutting ties, or making a power move to reclaim the gang from within.

Something to make the player say, "The ref actually read my character sheet!"
>"My players aren't very creative. They didn't think of any arcs or have any long-term goals."
The burden shifts to you (If that is the case, they sound like boring players to me). As a preamble, I'd tell my players to come up with a narrative arc they want their character to explore. I don't need a whole book, but 2 or 3 paragraphs along the lines of.
>My guy did the thing, and now the guy he thought was his friend actually wasn't! Now I'm out for revenge to get the guy who did the thing to the person I care about!"
Or whatever. Something to nudge them along narratively. Some tools go over these narrative methods in the core book. MAKE SURE your players don't neglect the life path portion of character creation. (page 40)