Historical Significance

It seems a five person committee has compiled canonical list of the Ten Greatest Video Games of all time. Honestly, my historical knowledge and experience is rather limited, so I cannot quibble with the list itself. I do find it a bit funny that a committee can just form and say, "this is it, these are the most important." Is that how all canonical lists get started? I always thought it was one of those "consensus among historians over a period of time" type of deals. Didn't think it was a "let's lock ourselves in a room and come up with five, no ten! titles that we think have helped make the industry what it is today" deal.

Regardless, I now want to play Super Mario Bros. 3. So they've accomplished that much.