In June 2002 ModDB began, and every year since we've celebrated the best mods in an annual player voted event. To mark our 20th Anniversary, we've decided to take a walk down memory lane, and look back on all of the mods that finished in the top 5, across five separate categories:
In the absence of new games in a franchise - or perhaps in response - modders will take matters into their own hands and tell the stories they want to know. Become the bad guy; explore the story of a fan-favourite character from a new perspective; or detail an unknown corner of the world. Alternatively, play your favourite title in a revitalised way, overhauled into a new experience for repeat players. These are the mods for the hardcore series fanatics.
Stories Valve Never Told
MINERVA | Mistake Of Pythagoras | Half-Life : Echoes
Half-Life 2 : MMod | Black Mesa: Azure Sheep | SIGNAL LOST
Mods for Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, and Black Mesa
![[ Half-Life 2 : MMod v2 ] Desert Eagle](https://media.moddb.com/cache/images/mods/1/15/14768/thumb_620x2000/deagle.png)
To no one's surprise, Half-Life fans have been filling in the blanks for years. Taking success in MOTY 2005 (for both Minerva and Mistake of Pythagoras), 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, these mods have even graduated onto other community made success stories - namely, Black Mesa, once a mod itself. Other mods like Thunder's Leaves, Half-Life: Field Intensity, and Dark-Life 2 all also carry the torch of community content creation, ensuring in Valve's absence, we Half-Life fans have plenty more chances to delve into the world.
More To Conquer
C&C: ShockWave | Twisted Insurrection | Rise of the East
Mods for C&C: Generals Zero Hour, C&C: Tiberian Sun, and C&C: Yuri's Revenge
With a loose chronology and many alternate universes to explore, C&C is a rich hotbed for community made expansions and crossovers. Featuring new units, super weapons, and sometimes entirely new factions, the mods earned their wins in MOTY 2009, 2017, and 2021 for sure. The End of Days, The Second Tiberium War and Operation: Firestorm are more examples of what fans have managed with this IP over the years.
S.T.A.L.K.I.N.G. The Wastes
MISERY | S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Lost Alpha | S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly
Mods for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl
Even in the presence of many AAA takes on a post-apocalyptic world, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. remains a cult favourite for its grounded, merciless embrace of a world hostile to all. Mods for the franchise's titles present new quests, new worlds, new weapons, and also have a great streak in MOTY with these three taking wins in 2012, 2014, 2018. This community has always had a great showing on ModDB and will for years to come.
Expanding The Universe
Empire at War Expanded: Thrawn's Revenge
Awakening of the Rebellion 2.8 | Expanding Fronts
Mods for Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
Star Wars' universe is rich with expanded material - quite a bit predating Disney's takeover of the IP, but with Disney adding to the chronology themselves as well. The games can only cover so much on release, but fans have brought nearly every possible combination of expanded universe material to life. These three mods, taking cups in MOTY 2015, 2016, and 2017, are all damn near sequels of their original game; and meanwhile, Yuuzhan Vong at War and Legacy Era: Second Imperial Civil War are examples of more mods documenting the expanded universe.
The Definitive Way To Play
Morrowind Rebirth| Median XL | Unification
Mods for Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, and Dawn of War: Soulstorm
Overhaul and "definitive edition" mods are the bread and butter of the modding community - proving sometimes all a game needs is to be enhanced to breathe new life into it. These are the kinds of mods you don't want to go without, and players didn't when they voted for this trio in MOTY 2009, 2017, and 2020. You're not missing out on anything from the base game by playing these mods - only gaining new toys to play with, or in the case of all three, new weapons to wield.
Classics like Quake and DOOM are timeless - games that play just as well as we remember, and likely will for all time. There comes a point, though, where even diehard fans want something new to sink their teeth into, and these winners of 2016 and 2020's MOTY awards respectively do just that. New levels and new mechanics abound, they're also faithful enough that fans old and new alike can pick 'em up and have a hell of a time.
Have your say in the comments.
Which takes the mantle for best In-Universe Story mod that paid respect to your favourite franchise?
This is probably the most difficult to pick, since here are so many known Mods to me, to pick. Half-life: Echoes, Half-Life 2: MMod, C&C: Shock Wave, Twisted Insurrection, Rise of the East, Dawn of War Unification Mod and many other Half-Life mods, which I haven't played yet. From the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Mods is definitely the Anomaly, which I just tried yesterday, but since I haven't played the Misery or Lost Alpha yet, I can't comment on those.
While MISERY has been superseded by new amazing mods, its influence cannot be overstated. While there were "hardcore" mods for STALKER before it, none of them were as consistent in tone, atmosphere and execution as MISERY. It is one of the first few STALKER mods I remember receiving mainstream game media coverage and frankly without it (and Call of Chernobyl) I do not see how other mod giants like Anomaly would have turned out if at all.
Thrawn's Revenge FTW!
Kinda hard to believe that stalker lost alpha got here, given its 5-year old state of a mess
It's also crazy to see Morrowind Rebirth on here considering most of the Morrowind Modding Community considers it anything but the definitve way to play Morrowind.
The mods on this list were decided by MOTY placements - meaning Morrowind Rebirth and STALKER Lost Alpha is featured as in that year of MOTY, users on-site decided it was indeed deserving of special mention, and their vote ;)
reminder that the la devs have the sdk documentation and they will never ever share it with other modders. lmao.
Time after time, year after year, Moddb seems to quite consistently overlook/dodge/miss Phobos (https://www.moddb.com/mods/phobos), a mod for Doom 3 that has been hosted in this site since 2006, 16 years as of now.
It's arguably the biggest mod for an arguably notable game, with an extensive campaign consisting of high quality levels, voice acting, new content in every department(i.e characters, enemies, models, textures, sounds, special effects, etc...), content that has garnered proper appreciation from the own review system this site provides to its users. Yet it has struggle to find even a fraction of the visibility this site has put forward to equally effort invested mods.
What drives the staff to include a mod into it's articles or events? Is it because Doom 3 isn't as popular as a Valve title? Is it because is a smaller community?
I think all mods that have a notable effort invested in it deserves a chance to enjoy at least an honorable mention at least once every single digit number of years, no matter the game, popularity or fan base size.
How many mods are here with hard work put in them to provide a quality free content for a game that see moddb's publications highlighting stuff every now and then, wishing they could also some day get mentioned and feel a bit rewarded for choosing the site to host their hard work of love?
Hi there - Phobos has not placed in MOTY before which is why it is not in these awards, which are specifically aimed at providing a retrospective over some of the most iconic and user-voted mods on-site. However, we featured Phobos recently on the ModDB YouTube account, as well as in a front-page editorial, here: Moddb.com
There's tens of thousands of quality mods on ModDB and we acknowledge it can be frustrating to not receive coverage regularly, but whilst we can't promise to cover them all, we have many different methods of promoting mods that are aimed at giving every quality project at least a little time in the limelight. As well as a dedicated showcase video on YouTube and a written editorial, Phobos has been headlined on ModDB's front page and socials a few times over its lifetime.
I hear you though and editorials like I've linked are aimed directly at providing more opportunities for us to promote projects like Phobos to the site's audience. I've been running editorials numerous days of the week for about a year now covering many of the unsung heroes on-site and I'd encourage you to take a look at my backlog here if you'd like to see that in action: Moddb.com
Hi! thanks for giving up some time to respond at what I said, I appreciate it.
I understand what you say, and I bet there's an overwhelming number of mods to take into account and are as deserving of anything one could wish in terms of visibility or oportunities than any other. I would argue about Phobos making any head lines that aren't the automatic game-specific front page an article or any update get upon release, which by nature can go away with just any other mod's update. Or even something else like The Dark Mod that gets feature for extended periods of time in the Doom 3 main page, not even being a mod but a standalone game completely and has nothing to do with Doom 3 since years now.
I imagine that by "socials" you meant tweeter, again I don't think that's true. I can't say it hasn't been one single tweet about it ever, since I don't have that power of recollection to affirm it, but I also don't think any number like three or two would ring true either over its lifetime.
The mod was registered here around 2006 and was in development for more than a decade, when content was finally released (Episode 1 in 2018) there was no mention. When Ep2 was released in 2020, same thing.
I don't expect to see Phobos in any MOTY nor 20 years retrospective nor any other recapitulations on the basis that those mentions are earned by number of voters, which tightly correlates to fan-base, so no matter how much effort and quality you could put into it you'll always loose to any content for any popular ip, that's why we see Doom II and Half-Life so prominently. That's fine with me, that's the deal and I take it, moddb is still a great platform for me and it provides enough already even if there's no hope to get into the wagon of nice attentions more popular things get.
I like what you are doing, covering many unsung heroes on-site sound great, and as far as this first year went you already broke an ancient curse that prevented a mod like Phobos to share with others a bit of light in this editorial. More power to you!
Hi again - I can confirm Phobos has been headlined twice, once on December 6th 2018 (for the release of Episode 1), and once on September 29th 2020 (for the release of Episode 2). Both headlines went live on Twitter. Our Facebook page was not active in 2018, but in 2020, your mod was also posted on there. I have increased headline slots since I became the site's editor and community manager, but both your major releases *were* given special mention by previous editors on site, too.
Episode 1 headline: Moddb.com, Twitter: Twitter.com
Episode 2 headline: Moddb.com, Twitter: Twitter.com, Facebook: Facebook.com
The priority on headlines is generally for released mods which is why Phobos may not have been headlined until then (although with increased headline slots, upcoming mods are more regularly featured nowadays), but once the mod made releases, both were headlined and featured.
I have totally missed those.
I stand corrected and understand it has been noted in it's two releases and noted outside of that in the editorial.
(On a parenthesis, I want to clarify that Phobos is not "my mod". I have collaborated with it since Ep2, but I don't want my comments to be confused as words coming from the actual guys behind the mod).
I'm more confident now for it to get noted now, and I accept the reality of not being included in more celebrated circumstances, Doom 3 is not a game that can gather any sustancial number of people next to more well known ones with bigger communities.
Thanks for having this exchange with me, cheers!
Where's battle for middle earth mods like Age of the ring? After being dropped by EA and forgotten by Tolkien estate, modders like these are the only ones keeping this game series going from the lord of the ring franchise...
Age of the Ring is showcased in another category yet to be revealed for the awards!
Not fair.
So many awesome mods I've played since 2014. Probably will choose ShockWave due to respect to the authors.
If a mod you've liked is not a part of this list, we'd encourage you to check out the Classics and Total Conversion categories, or wait for the Multiplayers and Moderns categories coming this week as you might find more overlap on those lists.
No, I mean there's so many awesome mods I've played and I must choose only one T__T
Btw, can you please change Morrowind Rebirth screenshot?
This screen from TESconstruct not from the actual game
In this circumstance we'd prefer to change a screenshot only if the original author requests it or if it's just straight-up of the wrong mod, otherwise we'll be sticking with the ones we've selected right now.
Shockwave isn't a story mod though, its "campaign" is just 3 simple mini-games with no connection to each other or to the vanilla storyline
Gotta vote for Arcane Dimensions. Awesome well crafted levels!
Expanding Fronts forever!
sadly, i had to pick expanding fronts, since my actual choice isnt in the list.
i am surprised you didn't mention brutal doom. it is the most popular doom mod here on mod db by a large margin.
it's even been in the top 3 most popular mod for years.
and still is.
Stalker Anomaly is the best because of the huge library of add-ons behind it :)