8 Gaming Features That Started Life As Fan Hacks

Like many of its contemporaries on this list, dual-wielding in Minecraft started out life as a fan-made mod, with its ensuing popularity eventually forcing developers to pull their fingers out and incorporate it as an official feature of the game.

Minecraft creator Notch had initially noted that he was working on including the ability for players to use more than just their right arm all the way back in 2011, but with the feature not being added to the Java and Bedrock editions for four and six years respectively, fans stepped in to fill in the void.

In the ensuing years, a number of mods sprung up to allow players to carry items in both hands, which unsurprisingly proved hugely popular before they were officially incorporated into the game.

The change also resulted in a huge overhaul in the game's painfully simplistic combat system. No longer did players have to choose between attack and defence, as now both a sword and a shield could be brandished at the same time, making those nighttime travels and excursions into the Nether a little bit less terrifying.

This also vastly improved the exploration elements of the game as players could see their cartography come to life in realtime as the map they held in their non-dominant hand became more detailed with every adventure.