John Harper in his blog says that the best way to understand gaming theory is to play these games. It's a list that heavily loaded towards indie games and so I own almost all of them (all but one in this list). However there are a few I've not yet played (in italics). I would add GUMSHOE to this list as it does things that no other game does whereas I'm not sure you need so many indie games. And what about Rocky & Bullwinkle or Dallas? Groundbreaking in their time. It's a list that is short on history (or geography, all the games are American bar one or two).


My Life with Master
Primetime Adventures
Sorcerer + Dictionary of Mu
Trollbabe
Dogs in the Vineyard
Burning Wheel or Mouse Guard
Poison'd
Inspectres
1001 Nights
Contenders
Dust Devils
Nine Worlds
Capes
The Shadow of Yesterday
Shooting the Moon
In a Wicked Age...
Steal Away Jordan
Swords & Wizardry or Labyrinth Lord, etc.
D&D 4e and/or Warhammer 3e
Savage Worlds
Vampire (any)
Call of Cthulhu
Everway
Over the Edge
Universalis
Grey Ranks
Geiger Counter
Danger Patrol
Polaris
HERO System
Shock:
Spirit of the Century
3:16
Apocalypse World