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Best Video Game Mods of All Time
Some mods can change the world.
Video game “modding” (the process of modifying a game’s content after its release) has a long history, with early games like DOOM featuring all manner of mods created by a dedicated community.
Modding shows the power of community when it comes to transforming video games from simple packages of content into living, breathing, examples of community art.
Not all games are moddable, of course, but even for some that are deliberately hard to mod, modders have found ways to interact with the code and bring out nifty tidbits that might otherwise not have existed.
For some games, intelligent modders have built entire software suites designed to crack into parts of the code and allow huge changes to take place. More and more modern game developers are realizing, however, that mods might just be the way of the future, and companies like Bethesda are actively considering the modding community when they release new games.
Some mods were so large that they, themselves, spawned entirely new game franchises!
Other modders have remastered old games that might no longer be as popular and transformed them for a modern audience, bringing classic storytelling and art to a new generation. Still others are creations for games that the community wishes existed, but don’t, and utilize the platform of one game to build something new — often times for a much loved franchise that doesn’t have its own game yet.
A few mods, too, go beyond the genre, and go beyond even art for art’s sake. These mods have impacts far beyond the gaming community, with ripples that expand outwards into the broader world, changing things in incredible little ways.
This list explores some of all of these types of mods, from the best-known classics, to a few gems that not everyone will have encountered before. There’s even a mod that Sir Terry Pratchett himself worked on, which has to be one of the most heartwarming modding stories that you’ll ever encounter.
