What does "top percentile" mean?

[oposdeo]

Having earned a higher score than one of those top percentile scores without it changing, I'm now curious. Does that mean the player that is 1/100 of the way from the highest to the lowest score, or the highest score overall? I would like it most if it was highest overall because beating it would basically be knowing you set a current world record :D

[Jenny]

It means that 1% of players who solved the puzzle have a score that's at least that good. If you beat it, it means you beat 99% of players, congratulations!

[oposdeo]

mm. I would always prefer to see #1 since it gives me a very concrete goal, but I guess they didn't want people optimizing themselves into oblivion.

[mreed2]

Also, there are people who cheat (directly modify the leaderboards) on these games. While Zachtronics does a good job at filtering these out, it isn't an instant process -- thus, showing the top score has a fairly good chance of being illegitimate. However, since many different users are required to change / set the top 1%, it is highly likely to be legitimate.

[oposdeo]

Good point!