THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2009
NEWS
3A
GAME
(CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Contributed graphic
This screenshot shows the layout of the online game "Farmville." The developers plan to allow users to play directly on Farmville. Contributed graphic
and farm production, players get a greater selection of things to buy, including new crops, animals or simple decorations for their farm.
Bill Mooney, Farmville vice president and general manager, said farming was a genre that attracted all ages.
And residents of Farmville dore worry about government subsidies or the current dairy surplus. In Farmville the weather is always sunny and crop prices never fluctuate.
"This genre has been around for some years," Mooney said. "It's happy. It's healthy. Everybody likes it and everybody gets it."
Peter Espinosa, Wichita seno and level 36 "Green Ribbon Farmer," has watched the game's popularity increase since its June debut. He started playing after he and his friends stumbled upon the game in mid-July. Back then his only neighbors on Farmville were his two friends, but now, Espinosa is asked several times a day to be someone's neighbor.
Farmville allows players to become "neighbors" with their Facebook friends. Neighbors can help out on each other's farms and give each other gifts.
"People I hardly know ask me to be their neighbors," Espinosa said. "I've got a well-established farm, which probably has something to do with it."
Mooney
"This genre has been around for some years. Everybody likes it."
But the No.1 rankings go beyond Facebook, Mooney said Farmville was the most popular online game of all time.
said Farmville had more than 63 million active monthly users in the last month. According to Allfacebook.com, a Web site that compiles Facebook statistics, the number nearly doubles the 35 million monthly users of the second-ranked application, "Causes."
"We expected it to be a big hit, but we didn't expect this," Mooney said. "World of Warcraft' is at around 11 or 12 million users a month.
BILL MOONEY Vice president of Farmville
Farmville had 63 this month."
The game is one of several popular Facebook applications created by Zynga, an Internet gaming powerhouse that began in 2007. Of the 10 most popular Facebook applications, Zynga owns half.
This year the company will make
millions from the success of games such as Farmville.
ranks.
One feature of the game allows players to spend real money in exchange for Farmville currency. Players can use this money to expand and improve their farms while consequently rising in the
Mooney said Zynga's profits had skyrocketed this year.
"I can tell you that $100 million is a conservative estimate," Mooney said.
The game's popularity is even attracting some real farmers.
Emily Tuel, Bayard, Iowa, senior, was raised on a farm that harvested crops and raised cattle. She had resisted the Farmville craz, but said the game had become a subject of family conversation. Tuel said her two brothers, both agriculture students at Iowa Lakes Community
College, played Farmville.
"It's kind of a joke, but they definitely enjoy it," Tuel said. "In the end, I know they would rather go out and do the real thing than just fake it."
Though the University does not have an agriculture department, the craze has affected agricultural students in other Big 12 institutions.
Ryan Shroder, Iowa State freshman and agriculture major, farms both in real life and on Farmville.
He said he knew several farmers who had been enticed by the pretend version. Shroder said his classmates mostly made fun of the game's lack of realism.
"It ends up with you having to click hundreds of times just to do your daily up-keep."
"Real farming doesn't have set time limits on how long it will take a crop to grow," Shroder said. "If they would throw a weather aspect in, I think it would be a better game."
for the more dedicated users
MIKE EMRIE
Naperville, Ill.; senior
But Mooney said the user-friendly environment and ease of play was part of the game's appeal. He said the company was considering including some real-life elements
"One of the big goals is that we want the game to be fun early on," Mooney said. "We don't want to punish you too much for things out of your control. We've talked about extending the game for people who play a lot."
Amidst the obsession, real farmers both laugh and take turns in the virtual farming sensation.
Mike Emrie, Naperville, Ill.
senior, said he stopped playing in.
mid-October because the game required too much time. He said boredom with the game had allowed him to successfully cut the habit.
"It itens up with you having to click hundreds of times just to do your daily up-keep." Emrie said. "All you are doing is the exact thing over and
over again."
Regardless of some players' retirement from virtual farming, Zynga is allowing users to play on Farmville.com next week. Mooney said the Web site would allow for additional items, expanded game play and new ways for player interaction.
Edited by Anna Kathagnarath
ENVIRONMENT (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. After planning budgets and getting outside companies on board, the date for the study to begin is set for Dec. 1.
"We have the opportunity to do research that we have been wanting to do for years." Goldstein said. "We're all very excited about the experience."
The research site for studying the process of geologic CO2 sequestration is Wellingon Oil and gas field in Sumner County.
The stimulus grant is to be used within a three-year period. Goldstein said this would allow the study to begin quickly and would ensure that the money from the grant would be promptly put back into the economy
after being spent on the resources needed to complete the research.
"Receiving this grant enhances the school's reputation in the geological community," Rex Buchanan, associate
specialist for KGS, said. "This makes it clear that Kansas has the capabilities and expertise to make a difference in the field."
The study will attempt to not only determine the likelihood of sequestering or trapping CO2 in depleted oil and gas fields, but also the possibility of using CO2 to force trapped oil from fields that are no longer economically capable of harvesting oil and gas. Some of the CO2 will be pumped into the depleted oil field, which will saturate and dissolve into oil then push it to the surface also making it easier to move. Another storage site will be deep underground in a rock unit composed of dolomite, an old sedimentary, porous rock, called Arbuckle Group, CO2 will dissolve into the salty water that naturally exists in the pores.
Drilling, coring and seismic imaging, which uses sound waves to create an image of the subsurface, are some of the methods that will be used to determine whether the field and the underlying water supply are capable of storing CO2 permanently and safely. Watney explained.
"We need to evaluate the risk involved and ensure that it can be done in a safe way," Watney said.
"The goal is to be able to store commercial size amounts of carbon dioxide," Watney said. "There's even a possibility of attracting the construction of a pipeline if our findings are successful."
"We have the opportunity to do research that we have been wanting to do for years."
The study will provide the information needed to make a decision on the next steps to take in dealing with greenhouse gases and the preservation of the environment, Buchanan said.
BOB GOLDSTEIN professor of geology
Along with Goldstein, two other University personnel from the department of geology will serve as co-principal investigators: Evan Franseen, professor and senior scientist, and David Fowle, associate professor.
"This is the start of something fairly major," Goldstein said. "It's exciting to work closely with colleagues on such a heavy duty research project. The opportunity is amazing, for students and for us professors."
In 2008, Kansas produced around 40 million barrels of oil, according to the KGS website, www.kgsku.edu. Sumner County, where the research site Wellington field is located, produced 451,639 barrels of oil last year, while 45,585 barrels were produced in Douglas County.
"There's a good sense of where storing CO2 could be possible," Buchanan said. "Wellington field is a prime candidate because of its geology, the characteristics of the underlying rocks could be the sub-surface needed to capture and keep potentially harmful Greenhouse gases."
Edited by Alicia Banister
POLITICS
Sanford's wife endorsing Rep. Haley
BY JIM DAVENPORT
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Disgraced South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford might not have much political capital these days, but his wife is using hers.
Bilt first lady Jenny Sanford endorsed Republican state Rep. Nikki Haley in a letter made public Wednesday to succeed her term-limited husband in 2011.
Mark Sanford has long complimented Haley for her efforts to make the Legislature more accountable, including by forcing more roll call votes. Haley's Internet home page once displayed his photo, but that disappeared after Sanford skipped the state in June and returned to confess a yearlong affair with an Argentine woman.
Jenny Sanford's letter supporting Haley could help a campaign that finished the third quarter with $273,061 in cash on hand — the least in a five-way GOP primary in June.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
It "gives her some credibility when jenny Sanford says 'I'm supporting her," said Danielle Vinson, a Furman University political scientist. "We're not used to first ladies just openly endorsing people and when they do, it's news. That brings a little attention, at least for a while."
Jenny Santoy was a former Wall Street executive, has ties to wealthy donors and a reputation for running her husband's political campaigns.
Sanford mentions her husband once in the letter, saying she was "proud of the work Mark and his administration have done over almost seven years now."
She has "proven to be politically savvy when it comes to helping candidates get elected," College of Charleston political scientist Kendra Stewart said. "And right now having Jenny Sanford's endorsement is certainly more valuable than having the endorsement of her husband."
Gov. Mark Sanford smiles as he is joined by his wife, Jenny, after he won the gubernatorial nomination in Columbia, S.C. Jenny Sanford has endorsed Nikki Haley to succeed her husband
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