Today we visited wargaming in Nicosia they are in charge of a national gaming company that produces war simulation video games. And they are the suppliers’ manufacturers and distributors of their products. They have been in business since 1998. The games they created are free to play to the public. They generate all of their revenue from in-game purchases. What I learned about the difference between free-to-play games and upfront purchases. With upfront purchases of the game, the company can’t have updates for the game, and they don’t have to worry as much about a continuation of advertising after they have sold a lot of their product. Meanwhile, free-to-play games need to continue to promote their games after they have been produced. The reason for this is that they need to encourage people to continue to play the game, so they keep buying items for the game. The company also needs to continue to push updates for the game, so it stays relevant. Overall, a big takeaway from this visit is that depending on the product in production companies can have different jobs on how to maintain the game. Just because people are currently purchasing the game does not mean the company is completely done with the process. Another aspect I learned from Wargaming is that companies need to pay attention to the growing industry. Wargaming does this by having a team designated to research recent work that has led to research in AI, Virtual reality, and unreal Engine five to see if these can be applied to their new products. Overall, in order for companies to continue it is extremely important for them to remain relevant in the growing world.

In addition to seeing wargaming, we had a walking tour of old Nicosia we got to see the old wall that the Turkish and UN constructed after the invasion. We also got to see the church where the bishop of Cyprus preaches at.