This is merely an effort to identify those mods that have played a role in the current culture of major release games, the ones that proved most influential and achieved crossover success, with some even recognized by the industry and refitted for commercial release. Trying to round up a canonical list of 'the best' mods is frankly impossible-practically each semi-successful PC game of the past 20 years has spawned a dedicated modding community. At the core of the idea, mods enable an enthusiastic fanbase to build upon and improve the developer's creation. Game mods have grown in stature over the past generation, as level-building became less technical and more encouraged, leading some of these user-made creations to even be championed by the game's original developers.
