20th Anniversary - In-Universe Excellence Results feature - Expanding Fronts mod for Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds

Welcome to the 20th Anniversary In-Universe Category results! With votes across twenty stories told anew in the universes we know and love, the most memorable additions to established worlds have been decided!

Sometimes a franchise languishes without another entry, or receives one some may wish it really hadn't. In those cases, it's up to fans to patch up the holes and make the stories we want to see - developing corners of the world, putting us in new shoes, and showing us a new perspective on the stories we love. In the end, only five mods from the poll could take pole positions, and you can find them below!

Mods are sometimes the best way to explore "what-if" scenarios and take a look at how things might've gone should one small - or in this case, one big - change occurred in the narrative. In Twisted Insurrection's story, Nod reigns supreme after the First Tiberium War, and it's up to players to restore the GDI and liberate the world, or double-down on Kane's regime and take the planet in his name. Considering the usual path of media is "the good guys always win", it can be fun to explore what happens if it's the heroes on the back foot for a change, and evidently, the players agree!

There's plenty of Star Wars to be had in all corners of the site, visiting the expanded universe, the Disney canon, or formulating something new. When you think of mods for Star Wars RTS, you wouldn't be wrong for thinking of Empire At War, but you'd also be missing out on Expanding Fronts, a long-running, well-supported, and gigantic overhaul mod for the isometric RTS Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. This one's a mod players chose for its almost unrivalled ability to provide access to the space and ground battles of the Star Wars lore, in a perspective not seen before.

Warhammer 40k is a little bit of a deceiving title for a universe, given there's ample lore spanning from 30k to the 42nd millennium, with a smattering of ancient worldbuilding preceding even that. With over ten thousand years of established canon to utilise, it's no wonder 40k mods have a great showing on-site, and Unification is among the best - as far as users are concerned - for bringing to life much of the fan favourite forces from the tabletop and lore in the fondly loved Dawn of War Soulstorm. Fight huge battles with map-sized titans, or put legendary god-like warriors like the Primarchs to the test - this mod really is a 40k strategy fan's dream.

Our second Star Wars showing on this list proves that the expanded universe is a gold mine of modding content, especially with more obscure concepts that have received very little direct explanation. Mods like Thrawn's Revenge place a special emphasis on being comprehensive and choosing interesting interpretations of uncommonly known elements. Inspired ship designs, compelling galactic conquests, and a graphical overhaul as the cherry on top ensuring this is one of the best ways to experience Star Wars today, players came out for this mod and Expanding Fronts to prove ModDB is the home of Star Wars modding.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s bleak imagining of a region wracked by radioactive fallout has captivated the minds of millions, inspiring authors, developers, and showrunners to show the ugly and miserable side of survival rather than the unrealistic heroics. Anomaly is the de-facto way to experience these games today, putting together the games in the series and running standalone thanks to gracious permission for GSC Game World to open up the Zone to as many people brave enough to dive into it. You can't discuss Anomaly's presence on ModDB, however, without discussing its own modding scene. It's not unusual for mods on the site to have submods or addons created by the community, and we encourage this kind of generational modding, but Anomaly takes the cake with thousands of addons created by the community to cover every possible playstyle, assortment of weapons, and ways to experience the game you might have. Anomaly's staying power can be owed to the developers' foresight in allowing community content creation - passing the modding torch onwards to new creators for years to come.

Congratulations to all the modders and community members who participated in the 20th Anniversary event! Stay tuned for the other category results coming up!