No, that's not a spelling error in the title. Some folks over at Joystiq want to put together a list of critically important videogames that every kid should be forced to play--rather like those important books that many of us were forced to read in high school and college. The list will be called the "Cannon" as an acknowledgment of the many classic games involving such weaponry. While this may seem like a silly idea at first, it does highlight an important problem of the current game industry--so few modern players are aware of the rich history of their medium, preferring to see anything made pre-Xbox or PS2 as simply "obsolete" and not worth their time.

Most of us who grew up with classic arcade titles are now in our 30s and are—despite the best advice of those who know better—having children. We owe it to our kids to make sure that they do not evaluate games in a vacuum, to educate them on why the classics are classics.

So, first off, what do you think of this idea of a "Western Cannon?" Is such a project just as controversial as the literary canon? Also--what games do you think are worthy of canonization?