The Community Heroes of the Year 2012: Durante and Nwks

You know, you lot are alright. While the mood of the gaming masses is often mischaracterised by those who don't know better - thanks to our shrillest, least rational voices, delinquent children and disgruntled petitionistas - we actually aren't short of terrifically generous and talented people, labouring away quietly to make things better for everyone.

To name but a few: this year, Robin Scott has done great work with the Nexus sites, going above and beyond the duty of mod aggregation to build a network of unmatched quality content, collated and curated with authority. Then there's James 'Lycerius' Moore, now famed for his decade long Civilization 2 campaign, who responded to his unexpected stardom with considerable magnaminty, releasing his saved game to the public and helping to forge the Eternal War subreddit , where players swap fiction and art based on his epic battle. Or you could rightly celebrate those responsible for The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod for KOTOR 2 - a humungous and protracted effort that saw its massive 1.8 release in July.

But this year's award must go jointly to Durante and Nwks - the two modders who, within hours of Dark Souls' crude port plopping onto PC, issued fixes for its resolution and framerate. They're essentially responsible for making one of the greatest games of this year playable. Bravo.

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