Today, we began the day with a site visit to War Gaming, a video game developer. A company headquartered in Cyprus, known for its free-to-play online war vehicle games, such as War of Tanks. As a fan of video games, it was cool to learn how every decision is thoroughly thought out in all aspects of the final product of the game. For example, how, for each region, the depiction of certain elements may change, especially in regards to the cultural differences between the United States and China. The video game industry is not like many others, as a more online-focused company like Wargaming, they are not entirely vertically or horizontally integrated. As while the product is the developed in house troubles arise with distributors in regards to company’s like Apple taking a third of revenue from every transaction. I believe that this practice is unfair to Wargaming as it prevents growth and innovation in the industry.
After Wargaming, we rode out of Nicosia and into the Troodos Mountains, into Kakopetria, a beautiful village hidden away in lush forests. Of course, with every trip, we were graciously treated to another delicious lunch at Linos Inn. This has been my favorite part of the trip so far, being able to walk up and down the hills, exploring the beautiful architecture and nature of Kakopetria was just wonderful. Seeing the nice ladies selling their pickled fruits and vegetables, and learning of the tragic story of the Couple’s Stone was definitely unexpected. We then traveled a bit further up the mountains to see the Church of Saint Nicholas of the Roof, which I learned that the name came from the fact that the church has two roofs to protect the beautiful frescos inside. Seeing the frescos with my own eyes was amazing, and as Catholic getting to learn about the differences with the Orthodox church helped me better understand it.
