Hello! Today, my group and I went on our second company visit, this time, to Wargaming. This was a video game company founded in 1998 that specializes in vehicle-based shooter games, with popular titles such as World of Tanks and World of Warships. We gained a lot of insight into the decisions that video game companies need to make when selling a product. Wargaming, throughout their existence, has been consistent in deciding to release all of its games for free, gaining revenue through microtransactions instead of pure sales. This is a tactic that has since become the industry standard, however, at the time of the original release of World of Tanks in 2010, this was a mostly unknown and unused strategy. It offers benefits such as low barriers for new users to play, helping it gain the millions of users that it has today. One term that they used that struck me was their “digital distribution”. While seemingly pretty obvious, the concept of selling video games entirely virtually without a physical disc, drive, or cartridge, has had a massive increase in popularity over the past few decades. Since Wargaming uses this distribution method exclusively, the company can save money from not needing to design, create, store, and ship physical games, instead delivering their product instantaneously to the user, electronically.
In the afternoon, we took an hour-long bus ride up to the Troodos mountains, the largest and most central mountain range in Cyprus. We arrived at Kakopetria village, a traditional Cypriot mointain village. Up at this elevation, it was noticeably cooler, allowing for the greenest portion of land that we have seen so far in the otherwise dry climate of the island. There were forests of trees, cacti, and even streams to explore between the peaks. The native women sold fruit preservatives as spreads from their homes, and I promptly bought a fig spread to take home. I also noticed an importance of rose water, a product that they were also selling, and they told me that they use it both in cooking and for facial hygiene. After we explored the village and had another huge meal, we then hopped back on the bus to reach the St. Nicholas of the Roof Church. This ancient Greek Orthodox church has frescos painted on all sides and the ceiling in its entirety. We learned that the newest of the frescos were painted all the way back in the 11th century, while the oldest, despite still being so vibrant, were painted in the 10th century. Finally, I also learned that dome ceilings are a staple piece of architecture to Greek Orthodox churches, often representing the sky or heaven, while the worshipers were on the ground, symbolizing Earth.