I think a bigger question is who would be the Lumiere Bros. of interactive media. Many interactive works seek to create illusion and trickery, tweaking with our perceptions, like Melies with film.
The more I think about it, the more this duality of documentary/illusion sort of meets in the middle with interactive media. One goal is to create perfect simulation (telepresence, etc.), another is to create an illusory reality. They're both pretty similar goals, more so than in cinema, I'd imagine.

i am.

why is it we feel the need to compare one media's artists to another?

and when we can all agree that our media is in its infancy, there is simply no way to tell right now who is going to be influencial in shaping the future.