"Hey, it's that Kanye West song!"

In this design research endeavor of mine, one goal is to look at GTA IV as a design object, and try to understand in a lucid way, how do its different design solutions affect my experiences as a player - and, at least hypothetically, play experiences in general. The first note regarding these aspects has to do with the soundtrack of the game:

I'm progressing through the first small missions, driving the car around and learning to use the cell phone, which is a new feature in the series. Thinking about its newness lead me to recollections of the earlier GTA games. This sort of remembering was amplified by one of the distinctive features that GTA III introduced, namely the radio stations one can listen while driving the car around. I was switching the stations back and forth, then settling on one. After a while, there was a Kanye West song I knew and liked, 'Flashing lights'. It instantly evoked a positive emotion, 'wow, this is so cool', and the whole atmosphere of the GTA series was evoked instantly in my head. It felt like returning back home, in this unfamiliar, artificial world, which has nothing to do with the comfort of home. But this is how games, and other objects of popular culture create emotional attachment: through conventions and expectations, and our evaluations of how they are met in the actual (play) experience.

After a slowish, uneventful start to the game, it was Kanye West who got me excited.