As I mentioned above I don't' think its a local term, we've been using it in the Heroclix community for 10 years at least at I'm sure I often heard of people 'breaking' a system for lot further back than that.  Its like 'cracking' a code.

When a gaming piece or strategy is so good it removes any chance of failure its called 'broken' in gaming circles.  My understanding is this is the tale of a smart person 'Breaking' being a 'Bad' guy.  Actually working the system so that you can't help but win at it.

Test this you quack!

Test this you quack!