Professor Profiles: A look at the lecturer

Sometimes when someone tells you that they study video games at college, they’re not making a joke.

Ryan Moeller, or Rylish as he’s known to some of his students, of USU’s English department is making video games a serious field of study.

Moeller, who owns a stand-up Ms. Pacman machine, said that while he may be a bit of tech nut, he does more than just play with his toys.

“I love gadgets, but I’m very critical,” he said. “I examine them as I play with them.”

This philosophy of taking a more in-depth look at what other people take for granted comes from his study of rhetoric, the subject he teaches.

Moeller has a sign on his office door that offers the definition of rhetoric that he likes to use. The definition consists of two parts: “How _____ works to create ways of thinking and knowing. How ____ arises from and contributes to particular social conditions marked by time, place and circumstances.”

One aspect of life that Moeller has been inserting into those blanks is video games. It was this unique area of expertise that attracted some attention when he first arrived.

“We were excited that Ryan came to USU,” said Mark Zachry, an associate professor in the English department whose office is around the corner from Moeller’s. “His focus was in an area that we didn’t have anyone in yet.”

In recent years, Moeller has been looking at video games as more than a form of entertainment. He examines them as a story-telling method and their effect on society.

Moeller has challenged his students to think more critically about video games as well.

“Most of them have no idea what goes into a game,” he said. “They think is was just some guy at home with a good idea.”

This is an attitude that Moeller feels most people have.

“Since it’s something they use primarily for entertainment, people don’t realize how much work goes into a game,” he said.

As part of his research, Moeller keeps tabs on the video game industry, paying attention to social issues like the unionization of game developers.

To help his students better understand what goes into the making of a game, he assigned students in his English 5400 class to design a game of their own. Students had to write a description of every aspect of the game.

“The only caveat I had is that the game have some educational value,” Moeller said.

Next semester, Moeller said he’ll be creating his own game that he hopes will both entertain and teach players at the same time.

“We’re making a game called ‘Aristotle’s Assassin,'” Moeller explained. “You’ll play a musician who overhears a plot to kill Aristotle and will spend the game learning more about the plot and about Aristotle, trying to decide to stop it or not.”

Moeller will be building the game in an attempt to not only teach about history, but to give players a chance to experiment in another world.

Such out of class projects are part just part of the job for Moeller.

“He’s very student-oriented and is willing to help students achieve their goals beyond the semester,” Zachry said. “When a professor is willing to do that, you can’t ask for much more.”

Moeller said the point of a good video game is to offer the players a chance to interact with the world and experiment with the morality of it.

Many people studying videogames have been looking at the aspect of violence involved.

“People look at games like ‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ and all they see is the violence and the sex,” Moeller said. “But really, it is about a character and he’s looking for a way out of the violence.”

“Grand Theft Auto” and other games like it have raised a lot of attention lately. Parent groups and high-profile lawyers have been asking questions about video games causing violence in children.

Moeller, on the other hand, doesn’t care too much for this line of investigation.

“You can find studies that say it does cause violence and than turn around and find some that say it doesn’t,” Moeller said. ‘There’s nothing conclusive.”

Moeller said that he would rather look at the reasons behind that violence and what that says about society,

“I find that a much more interesting area of study than if cause violence,” Moeller said.

Moeller describes his teaching style as one open to discussions with his students.

“I never like to lecture in class,” Moeller said.

This teaching philosophy comes from an experience from his first year teaching at UNLV. Moeller said he was not very happy with the effort his students were putting into their studies.

“I spent the whole 50 minutes of a class sitting on the desk lecturing them about what I expected out of them and how I didn’t think I was getting it from them,” he said.

“After the bell rang, nobody moved, which I took as a good sign after a lecture like that.”

Moeller said that over the class period of sitting on a hard wooden desk, his legs fell asleep.

“I hopped off the desk to walk out and fell right on my face.”

Moeller said his lecture had such an effect that no one laughed.

“I just left and decided I was never to lecture again,” Moeller said.

When not teaching, Moeller has started two new student clubs on campus. These groups, the Gamers Guild and the Learning Games Initiative, are designed to develop “more of a community among gamers at USU.”

The Gamers Guild is a group that gathers to play games together and discuss them. Learning Games Initiative is an international organization that focuses more on researching games and their statements on society.

-steveshinney@cc.usu.edu