Today was another busy day! We started off by going on a site visit to Wargaming, which is a game development and supply company, with free-to play games on many platforms, ranging from mobile, to PC, to console. Their most popular game is World of Tanks, but they also have World of Warships, World of Warplanes, and Bowling Crew. This was a super interesting visit because 1. I don’t really know anything about gaming, and 2. the care that the company has for it has employees is next-level. The building has a gym (with workout classes available), showers, sauna, massage room, café, and a quiet room for those who just need a few minutes to decompress or for breastfeeding mothers. It was a very casual environment as well, with most of the employees wearing t-shirts, cargo shorts, jeans, sneakers, etc. For example, as we were leaving I saw man swiping in wearing a “My name is Pickle Rick” t-shirt. The head of HR explained that they’ve purposefully cultivated this environment because Wargaming holds a lot of value in work-life ‘harmony’ they call it. Having so many resources for employees also helps increase productivity and retention. In regards to supply-chain, I learned that they completely develop and publish the games on their own 100% digitally, meaning there are no costs for inventory or shipping. They have their own delivery platform, but also of course work with other distributors such as Steam, Apple, Google, Sony, and Epic Games. Since all of their games are free-to-play, marketing plays a major role with an “endless content pipeline.” They make all of their revenue through in-app purchases, and something so interesting to me that I didn’t know was that free-to-play game developers avoid making in-app purchases that give players advantages, since that is considered bad business practice. Instead, they focus on cosmetic and experiential updates, such as skins or holiday campaigns. I also learned that in the gaming industry, it is very common to change up aspects of games specifically for the Chinese markets, and in many cases, developers partner with Chinese-based companies to publish and update the games to the circumstance of the specific demographic. I had a great time here at Wargaming and it definitely helped me gain a newfound respect for this industry and company specifically.
For the second half of the day, we venture west to Kakopetria Village. This is a beautiful little village in the Troodos mountains. We started with lunch and then had some free time to explore. This village is called Kakopetria, which means ‘bad stone.’ This is because there is a legend that a stone fell from the mountain and killed a newlywed couple, and while that may give some bad vibes, the village is far from that. It is small and close, with a majority, if not all, businesses being family owned. During our free time to explore, we found ourselves kind of stuck, since it seemed like nothing was actually open for business. We spotted a café with some people outside, so we stepped in for some delicious coffee, and after talking to the owner, we found out that Wednesdays in Kakopetria are like their Sundays. It’s the time for them to rest and spend time with family, since the weekends are such big tourist days and they don’t want to loose so much business by being closed on Sunday.
After we left the village we went to St. Nicholas of the Roof, which is a Greek Orthodox church. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside of the church, but I want to make it a point to say it was unlike any other church I’ve seen before. It was small, with 2 rooms, both covered with art from top to bottom. An interesting aspect of the art was that you could see the most recent paint job from the 14th century, but you could also see the original paint job from the 11th century at places where the newer paint was peeling or crumpled. Our tour guide, Georgia, also explained some small, yet key differences between Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic, such as their depiction of the Mother Mary and the Crucifixion.
