Pretty much my favorite thing about PC gaming can be boiled down to a single word: customization. There exists a great many dedicated, talented hobbyists and amateur designers out there who, given the proper tools, can cobble together some downright incredible experiences. A few of the video game mods I’ve played were actually better than the original title.
If you’re looking to enrich your play experience -if you’re not quite done with a game, and want to see what else can be done with an engine – it’s definitely worth browsing through the vast library of mods and add-ons floating about the net. That’s where I come in: what follows is a list of the best, most common places to search in order to meet all your gaming needs.
Steam Workshop
Valve has done a great many amazing things with their digital distribution platform. Perhaps their most impressive step was the creation of the Steam Workshop, a huge collection of player-created assets easily navigable from within the platform.
Initially created for Team Fortress 2, the workshop has since expanded to include a huge array of developers and titles. Virtually anything can be found alongside in the Workshop: new avatars and skins, new scenarios, new weapons…you get the idea.
At this point, it’s probably one of the best, most comprehensive libraries online. Plus, most of you who game on the PC are already using Steam, right?
Given that it bills itself as “the front page of the Internet,” most of you probably aren’t terribly surprised to see Reddit make the list. When a particularly awesome mod hits the web, there’s a very good chance it will eventually make its way to the front page (or at the very least, to r/games or r/gaming).
In addition, there’s an entire sub-reddit devoted to the development, discussion, and advertisement of player-made content: r/GameMods. Have a look around, it’s definitely worth the effort. Plus, if you’re a budding modder yourself, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to develop your craft and seek help from those more experienced than you.
Mod DB
Steam aside, I’d say that ModDB is the world’s largest library of third-party add-ons. It’s a thriving community for both modders and gamers, with a robust ratings/review system, job postings, game engines, modding tutorials, and an extensive forum where people can go to discuss game development, ask for help, or simply hang out and chat. It’s definitely worth a look, as some of the best mods ever developed were either posted here initially, or found their way here in short order.
In-Game
Sometimes, you don’t really need to do a whole lot of searching. If you’re playing a title where custom games are common, you can probably find a great deal of mods, add-ons, and custom maps floating around in the lobby.
Take Warcraft III as a (slightly dated) example: Dota, perhaps one of the most popular mods in history, got its start as a custom map created with the title’s built-in modding tools. As such, before you start looking elsewhere, it might well be worth first booting up multiplayer and seeing what it has to offer.
Gaming Blogs
Last, but certainly not least, keep your ear to the ground in the games industry. A great many gaming publications- Kotaku, IGN, and Giantbomb among them – will often feature the best made, most enjoyable, and most popular mods in amongst their news-feeds, and some (such as Gamefront) even include a section entirely dedicated to player-made content.
Twitter, too, is a good website to watch. Basically, just pay attention to the news, follow the top blogs on Twitter, and you’re bound to come across something good eventually.
Any other sources you folks can call to mind that I’ve missed? Give me a shout in the comments!
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