Vin Crosbie's New Media Definition

I'm going to try to develop my animation idea further by reading how three of the big heads of New Media define the term "New Media" (of course, it's different for each of them). Hopefully after I've read each of their definitions and have compared what they wrote to what I've been thinking about doing, I might be able to add to my idea (or come up with something better). My first post is in regards to Vin Crosbie's definition.

a. How does your capstone measure up according to the definition proposed in Vin Crosbie's "What Is New Media?" How might you alter your project to fit better?

b. Do you agree or disagree with Crosbie's definition, and why?

Vin Crosbie described the three communications media as "one-to-one" (Interpersonal Media), "one-to-many" (Mass Media), and "many-to-many". The last one is the newest, therefore "New Media". It's pretty difficult for me to measure up how a 3-D computer-generated animation fits Crosbie's proposed definition, as he thoroughly pointed out that there is a clear distinction between "medium" and "vehicle" (ie., the world wide web is not a medium, but a vehicle used in conjunction to the medium). There is only one "new medium", in terms of communications media, and everything else that manifests within it is simply a vehicle. The personalized website is a vehicle, and so are computer games. If those two are considered by Crosbie to fall under "new media", then an animation that has been created using the computer also fits the bill. In fact, not much altering would be required in order to make my project fit his definition better; I could place my finished animation online (perhaps on a personalized website?), and include a "Play" button at the start so that the viewer had control over when the animation begins to play, and already it's chock full o' New Media.

Now for part B of the assignment, I have to say I only partially agree with his definition. Many of his examples do fit my opinion about "new media", but I also think that new media is not solely confined to technology. Granted, his article was written in 1998--almost a decade ago--and many things have changed since then, so I can't hold it against the man. One thing that I felt needed more elaboration in his article was one of his examples: "Some computer games, such as Myst, are New Medium vehicles". What qualifies "some" computer games as New Medium vehicles, and others not? And his example doesn't clarify it any--what makes Myst any more "new media" than, say, Zork? The only major difference in gameplay is Myst uses sounds and images instead of text (The original Zork was released in 1979, compared to Myst's 1993--fourteen years later--so the gameplay itself isn't exactly "new"). Perhaps if Crosbie gave us an example of a computer game that was not new media, including an explanation for his choice, then perhaps I could better agree with his definition.