Paragon is the name of Games Warehouse Limited's interactive SWP machine (Skill With Prizes) found in pubs across Great Britain. Currently in its third incarnation, Paragon offers pubgoers entertainment and the chance to win modest cash prizes (between £1 and £40) for an initial stake of 50p. The payout percentage which the machine operators hope to maintain is typically 30%. Newer Paragon cabinets have a choice of twelve playable games which are selected from a database of around 30 games of which the rest are idle but can be activated at the discretion of the landlord and/or engineer or remotely. Thus, unlike the market leader itbox, each Paragon machine may have an entirely different selection of games available. Most games are based on the question-and-answer format although recently the terminal has embraced other forms of SWP including Hangman style games, visual puzzles and word games. Paragon and other SWP cabinets Many regular and occasional SWP players consider this terminal to be the least homogenous of the rival cabinets (e.g. itbox, Gamesnet, ind:e, Fatbox). This may be due in part to the essentially simple interface and accessibility of gameplay in typical Paragon games. However, criticism of the Paragon cabinet include the screen's propensity to be askew and the over-simple, even childish nature of some games. While there is considerable crossover of games between rival platforms, each has some exclusive content.
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