I am routinely amazed at the improvements the modding community makes even for games that are designed to be unfriendly to mods. Take Mass Effect 3 for example

I am routinely amazed at the improvements the modding community makes even for games that are designed to be unfriendly to mods. Take Mass Effect 3 for example. The game ships with Origin, which is EA's wannabe Steam online-store/community/DRM. The me3 executable is validated when origin starts up in an attempt to ensure that there's no way to play a modified version of the executable. Modders found a way around this that basically involves playing musical chairs with executable files, and proceeded to mod the heck out of the game from there. The game is not terribly friendly to mods so there's nothing like what you'll see for a game where a toolset has been released, but basic things like texture upgrades (and changes), unlocking and repurposing game assets, modifying weapons, unlocking the in-game console, etc.. (I'm a particular fan of enabling the flycam so you can fly around levels and see how they're built, dynamically loaded, and how they achieve optical effects). Other games are more mod-friendly. Bethesda's games are one of the standard bearers, and stepping back into one of their games after a year or two can be a completely different experience with the right mods! There are mods that completely rework combat mechanics, add entirely new spell systems, total interface overhauls, you name it! If there's something you don't like about a Bethesda game, odds are you can completely replace it! This raises the replay value of their games tremendously, and all they have to do is release a devkit and be a little bit friendly! Every once in a while, a botched and buggy game with tremendous potential will be buffed and polished by an obsessed modding community, revealing a classic that the developers were never given time to realize. Games like Troika's Vampire: Bloodlines or Obsidian Entertainment's KOTOR2 are still evolving online. I've been holding off replaying KOTOR2 for years because I know it just keeps getting closer to the game it was meant to be every year. I'm rambling, but I really respect and love the PC modding community. It truly is something special, and I wish more game companies (EA, I'm looking at you!) would give it the respect (and cooperation) it deserves!