Modding communities that place developers to shame

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

Cue Mojang hate!

OT; Probably Oblivion's. The amount mods that fix every little problem with the game is staggering.

Edit; Oh, I just remembered that Starcraft 2 mod that turns it into an MMO. I'll pick that then.

 

[Halceon]

Pretty much any mod that has been later developed into a stand-alone game deserves to be compared to the original devs. Or rather, the designers.
Because mods have one extremely significant shortcut - they never need to develop an engine. The difference is between building an awesome fort on top of a wild mountain amid a swamp and building an awesome fort from stack of bricks on a levelled mountain with some scaffolds already in place.

 

[zehydra]

Yes, to the first two
Never played the third
And hell no. I've never seen a good mod for Oblivion or Morrowind.

 

[The Funslinger]

I guess the best explanation comes on two fronts.
Firstly, that modding communities don't have a deadline for release, and most of the best examples are released many years after the game is already out.
Secondly, modding communities focus and work on one particular mod or element, or a certain piece to improve on. So instead of building and polishing a whole game their focus is on buffing one piece of a puzzle.

Not to say developers shouldn't take a few lessons from their modders.

Plus, a lot of them do it because they love the game. So money isn't really an issue, and when it is, it's usually a very negotiable deal done over PayPal. Shame a lot of big products get slammed by the companies, such as the Morrowind in Oblivion's engine thing. Shame, because it wouldn't have hit sales much (people are excited for Skyrim) and if they'd acknowledged it and let it slide, it would have been great publicity.

 

[The Funslinger]

Going to have to put a vote in for the Total War Community. Why?
Two words.
Europa Barbarorum.
There are plenty of great mods for the various games in the series but that one is pretty special.

Also, Oblivion has plenty of great mods too.

The only mod that has come close to EB is Roma Surrectum 2. The advances with the engine their team made were absolutely stunning. They added bloom, realistic trees and forests, rolling hills, and downwards flowing water.

I was greatly pleased about Westoros: Total War for Medieval 2.

I like to think that word of that had some influence on the up coming Song of Ice and Fire game.

 

[Blunderboy]

Going to have to put a vote in for the Total War Community. Why?
Two words.
Europa Barbarorum.
There are plenty of great mods for the various games in the series but that one is pretty special.

Also, Oblivion has plenty of great mods too.

The only mod that has come close to EB is Roma Surrectum 2. The advances with the engine their team made were absolutely stunning. They added bloom, realistic trees and forests, rolling hills, and downwards flowing water.

Just looked that up, could not believe it was for RTW.
Guess what I'll be downloading later?

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Going to have to put a vote in for the Total War Community. Why?
Two words.
Europa Barbarorum.
There are plenty of great mods for the various games in the series but that one is pretty special.

Also, Oblivion has plenty of great mods too.

The only mod that has come close to EB is Roma Surrectum 2. The advances with the engine their team made were absolutely stunning. They added bloom, realistic trees and forests, rolling hills, and downwards flowing water.

Just looked that up, could not believe it was for RTW.
Guess what I'll be downloading later?

Just to warn you, it is a BIG mod. You either have to download it in seven parts, or as one multi gigabyte torrent.