The use of the in media res literary device is as old as narrative. There are obvious practical and ontological bases for this. Unless we are talking about the big-bang or the theoretical beginning of things, we are mostly constrained to place a story somewhere with a narrative frame. Art has, of course, always played with this rhetorical frame to both create or question the idea of context, and to engage listeners, readers, spectators, players, etc.
With the rise of video games this device has been complemented with the form of repetition. There is a big difference between the idea of repeating a movie and playing a video game again. First of all, the idea of repetition is much more rooted in the structure of video games. As players, we mostly try any action over and over without major restraints until we can achieve the objective, if there is any. Depending on the game design and the action we may want to perform, this cycle could be repeated obsessively or just a couple of times.This formal structure has carved its way into the cultural landscape in peculiar ways during the last years through games and films.
An interesting example of how this two topics interact can be found in the game Inscryption, by Daniel Mullins. The game explores with frenzy the repetition trope through a narrative that catches the player accidentally in the middle of the game. From the beginning, the basis of a regular videogame interaction are altered. When normally a ‘New Game’ option would be available, in Mullins game we find ourselves forced to use the ‘Continue’ option. This gesture alone creates a bigger tension on the fourth wall and forces the user to sospect of a previous story luring the current experience.
Once inside the game, the narrative structure includes the players eventual loosing. This underlines both the repetition of gameplay and a new in media res beginning adding up to the story. Each time the player looses its lifes, it is turned into a card that may be drawn in the next attempts. Now the player gets to improve—hopefully— its deck after every attempt, enriching what jasper juuls called graceful failure, and also faces the idea of being a new player continuing a bigger single game.
Many games and other cultural artifacts have already emotionally played with the idea of repetition through defeat. However, with the introduction of the interactive dimension of video games into the retorical realm, I am sure there will be new interesting devices coming out of it in the future.