As students, we often perceive lecturers as faces on our weekly recorded videos or a voice droning on in the background as we play in class but few of us rarely take the time to get to know these interesting, valuable educators that we have in our midst. It is with this in mind that we would like to welcome you to a new, revamped Humans of Monash (HOM)! This time, we’re going beyond interviewing undergraduate students and chatting with diverse fantastic staff members, compared to the previous work of HOM. This segment aims to remind us of our individuality and humanity as well as form deeper connections as a Monash community. Starting off with one of the most well-known names in the School of Arts and Social Sciences (SASS) department, we reached out to film tutor, Dr Agata Frymus, who excitedly shared her love for the Sims with us.

With over 20 years of experience playing the Sims, Dr Agata has become a seasoned player. Describing her creative process as lore-based, she has a rather unique approach to the game, focusing more on the social aspects rather than creating a personal physical space for her sims. For many players, being able to design their own houses and clubs are a big attraction of the game but Dr Agata prefers to focus on the social behaviours and interactions of her sims, choosing to download pre-made houses from the gallery instead. She emphasises the importance of controlling the social influences in her sims worlds and creating realistic, average looking sims rather than perfect and polished. Her unique approach to her gameplay also says something about her personality, as she merely sets the ball rolling and doesn’t try to micromanage her sims afterwards. However, this does come with drawbacks as many seasoned players know. She described a wedding that she held recently where her sims were so busy that one of her horses ended up starving and taken away by Social Services – a devastating occurrence that many of us sympathise with.

When we asked for her top three rated expansion packs, she laughed cheekily before giving us her PG-13 rated selection – Cottage Living, Snowy Escape and Island Living. She describes her tastes as unconventional as she prefers the ones that create beautiful worlds. While Island Living may not make the top of many players’ lists due to the lack of gameplay, Dr Agata holds a soft spot for it as it helped her escape the grim realities of the COVID lockdowns – much like the sentiment that caused a worldwide surge of  Animal Crossing players during the early pandemic.

As a film tutor, we also asked for her opinion on the new The Sims movie that was recently announced with Margot Robbie headlining as producer –  to which she admitted she remains sceptical on how it would be approached, emphasising that it should have a “self-aware meta narrative” similar to Barbie in order to do it justice. Nevertheless, she expressed that she would still watch the film out of morbid curiosity, as I’m sure many of us would agree with. It would be interesting to watch how the new MCU (Margot Cinematic Universe) brings fun, family-friendly movies back to the cinema while simultaneously creating worldwide cultural events like Barbenheimer again.

As a frequent player myself, we saw it fitting to surprise her with an avatar of herself as a Sim to bring the interview to an end. It was a pleasure and delight to share my love for the Sims with Dr Agata in this interview. We have many more interviews lined up, so stay tuned for more stories from the Humans of Monash!

Full interview video available here: https://www.tiktok.com/@musamonga/video/7366156781682314503

Do you have an intriguing story about an unexpected connection, a memorable experience, or any random stories you’re eager to share with the world? Don’t keep it to yourself! Share your story by DMing us on Instagram @musamonga! Your story matters to us, and we can’t wait to hear from you!

Featuring Dr Agata Frymus

Coordinated and Interviewed by Kaira  

Written by Shania

Photos by Ezriq