When I was a kid I had the top score in Galaga at my local arcade. I held the spot for months. Then one day I came in to find my score doubled by someone. The arcade owner told me that it was a guy who went around to each arcade and ran up the scores. Like a game playing gunslinger.

Now on the web any time I find a fun game and play it for awhile and improve, I come online to find that the high score has been run up by some aspieoverlord to unwinnable levels.

So how do game designers overcome that demotivating unwinnable high score phenomena?