Seven amazing creations that players made with famous games

I play video games for fun. Who doesn't?

But there's only so many times you can play through a level on a three-year-old game before it becomes rote button-tapping: the interactive equivalent of bingeing "House" on Netflix. You know exactly how it's going to go.

Enter the world of "mods."

These are free patches fans create to expand the worlds of their favorite video games – sometimes for the better, and sometimes just for the weirder. Mods can soup-up graphics, add in-game content, or change the ways games behave. Some mods function as entirely new games, with the game they modify running invisibly underneath. Others just exist to make you laugh. The only requirement for playing them is owning the original game they're based in.

Collected here are mods that, one way or another, promise to transform your gaming experience. A few are even so good they make buying their underlying games worth it. That is, if you don't have them already. 

SEE ALSO: Online communities are changing video games to make them better, weirder, and much more wonderful

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Macho Man Randy Savage dragon in 'Skyrim'

OHHHHHH YEAHHHHH! This may be my favorite mod out of the video-games-should-be-much-weirder school of design.

Macho Man Randy Savage was a pro wrestler for three decades, known for his over-the-top persona and mannerisms that stood out even from the WWF's manic pack of characters. ("Snap into it!") "Skyrim" is a fantasy role-playing video game about swordplay, magic, knights, and dragons. Someone stuck those dragons and Mr. Savage in a blender and this weirdness emerged:

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The uncanny look of the Macho Man dragons isn't even the best part of the mod. The best part is the quotes the dragons shout as they wreak havoc. Here's a video on one in action:

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 [NexusMods]

John, the 'Minecraft' Monster

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See this friendly-looking fellow? His name is John. Would you like him running around your pixelated "Minecraft" world? Neither would I.

In case you haven't run across it, "Minecraft" is the wildly popular video game that resembles  virtual LEGO. Players, just like LEGO builders, spill the contents of their imaginations across blocky landscapes of enormous possibility. And some players' imaginariums are apparently incomplete without horrifying, blood-soaked monsters.

John is just my favorite "Minecraft" horror mod character to hate. There's a whole bestiary of his cousins in terror out there ready to download into and subvert your creations. If this is your thing, check out Slender Man and Herobrine as well.

Army attack at five stars for "Grand Theft Auto V"

"Grand Theft Auto V" is, for better or worse, all about the joy of utter mayhem. Most mods for the game are built for the purpose of pumping up that mayhem to ever more extreme levels. The "Tanks Spawn at Five Stars" mod rewards mayhem with even more mayhem.

In the "Grand Theft Auto V" universe, your wanted level – reflecting how much violence and machinery of war the police will use to stop your crime spree – raises as you commit crimes and maxes out at five stars. In older "GTA" games, like "Vice City" and "San Andreas," the star level went one step higher to six. At that point the army would step in to shut you down, often using – you guessed it – tanks.

(For the cool cats I ran with in middle school, reaching six stars without cheating or dying was the holy grail of late-night basement gaming.)

In "V", the mythical sixth star is sadly absent. But "Tanks Spawn at Five Stars" goes a long way toward fixing that grievous error:

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