Day 3 started bright and early with a visit to Wargaming, a video game developing company. It used to be the largest building in Cyprus, pictured in the featured image. The hospitality in Cyprus is amazing. The game development industry seems like it would be a great place to work. Like Vassos Eliades, they truly value their employees, and the employees do a great job representing the company. I learned so much about the video game distribution industry like how they have to have various versions for PC, console, and mobile. They also contantly have to adapt to changes in the environment around them. However, having a digital distribution strategy helps them make updates very quickly. This is a supply chain stragtegy that also allows them to complete instant delivery worldwide. While they try to have a very vertically integrated supply chain, they cannot be the developer and publisher for China due to laws and regulations there. They can only be the developer and must have a Chinese publisher. This is something I found very interesting. That is the only country that differs in this way that Wargaming distributes to.
After finishing up at Wargaming, we took a trip to a quaint little village called Kakopetria, where we has lunch and some free time to explore. I learned that a lot of shops are closed on Wednesdays because it is a break the local owners will take to spend with their families. I also learned about how Kakopetria got its name which means “evil stone” because of a stone that rolled and killed a married couple on their wedding day. This was very sad, but locals will walk around it on their wedding day to avoid bad luck. Not too far from where we were in the village was St. Nicholas of the Roof Church. This church is absolutely beautiful inside. Seeing all the old paintings all along the walls was so cool, and some dated back to the 11th century. Other paintings were made in the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 17th centuries as well. Our guide also pointed out how some paintings such as those of the Virgin Mary are depicted differently in the Greek Orthodox church then in the Roman Catholic Church. The differences are very minute but nevertheless very fascinating, as I got to see them first hand. So far this trip has been amazing, and I am very appreciative I get to witness such old architecture with my own eyes.