Category:Mods

Mods are (usually) unofficial, fan-made expansions to existing video games. They differ from ROM Hacks in that they aren't standalone products; they require the original game to function.

There are two different types of mods: Mods in sandbox or survival games, which usually add new content or gameplay mechanics, or mods in non-sandbox or surival games which usually overhaul and restyle the game. The two categories can switch places and/or overlap on occasion, however.

Several games, like The Stanley Parable and the Counter-Strike series, started out as mods themselves (both examples here having been mods for Half-Life), before being adapted into full-fledged games. Some of these even received mods themselves; for example, The Raphael Parable is a mod based on The Stanley Parable which in turn started out as a Half-Life mod.

Valve, a popular video game company, fully supports community-made content on their online platform, Steam, allowing mods, known as "addons" on Steam, to be freely put up on the Steam platform, where they must either be downloaded or purchased on their own pages, or added through the Workshop, where one must simply click the "Subscribe' button to add the mod without having to download it. By far the largest Workshop with the most content is that of Garry's Mod which even rivals the mod collection of Minecraft; these two games currently lead the mod community.

And example of a popular mod is OreSpawn for Minecraft.