I don't think hosting files should be a responsibility of the game developers.  Their number 1 responsibility is to make games.  Hosting files is really a public relations/marketing job, and that's what publishers are for.  They are there to take the game that the developers make and be sure that it's in the hands of every single person in the world.  Unfortunately, publishers also have a sort of disincentive to encourage mods.  If players are playing mod X, and they are happy with it, why would they want to go out and buy game Q, which the publisher also happens to publish?  Of course smart publishers would then buy mod X and start selling it retail...

As to my post above. I work on the Star trek Voyager: Elite Force Platform. when we talk Mods it's mostly single player and that's the way I tend to think. I belive if the quality of gameplay is high it makes up for lacks in texture and the such but eye candy cannot make up for an incredibly bad gaming experiance. so when i say quality this is the hill I stand on.
I have D/l'd a few weapon mods some are cool but you can get tem put on filesnetwork and save space on a publishers server for something more outstanding. (and any of you who are thinking of adding a weapon replacement to your map file ...DON'T! there is nothing more frustrating than being forced to use a weapon you don't like because it was hidden in a .pk3 you D/l'd. )

Well, even the commercial arena isn't pushing the boundaries as hard as it could.

In fact, I tend to be a kinda open source sort, and happen to think that unbounded by suits from the marketing dept. is where real innovation happens.

Of course, I happen to be working on a historical type mod (not too original), and there's tons of others out there that are just copies of other ideas.

However, there's that one person doing that jihad thing (which may get taken the wrong way, but is original), or natural selection, which combines a couple games in one game. There's certain boundaries a commercial only developer can't cross, or play with. After all, at the end of the day, some marketing schlep's gotta think it makes money, and sadly, i've met very few in that line of work who have any imagination, vision or ability to see what people will like.

But, there's nothing wrong with ideas getting recycled, rehashed and recombined. If a commercial developer cottons onto the idea some mod maker comes up with, IMHO it just means it was a good idea, and the fact that several people are playing the 'free' version just means the for profit developer might be able to sway the marketing folks into believing ppl will like it (cause a bunch already do)...

meh! i'm blathering.. i think my point was that innovations can happen anywhere. Those that assume it won't be in either the mod camp or the commercial camp are often surprised i think :P Or something like that..