Gaming Mods Security Risks

I read the following post, and while the questions was specific to SkyRim, the more general answer was that it depends on the game. I wanted to pose a more generic question here to the security folks.

The main concern seemed to be the type of file extension and language that was being used for the mod. I was under the impression that any code can do almost anything it likes, so I'm not sure how the language would matter. Also, I understand that an executable is more dangerous than perhaps a simple text-based config file.

1. How dangerous are gaming mods, does language and file-type matter, and how can I decide these for each individual game?


2. Also, does the maliciousness/exploitability depend on the mod file I am downloading, or the type of files the mod-file is modifying?


3. Will a decent AV with signatures/heuristics pick up a malicious payload?


4. Can mods be examined in a debugger (OllyDBG) or other tool (which type)?

To sum: How can I mod safely?