You Can’t Be Taller Than Master Chief

One of the more charming little fan-pleaser booths at E3 this year was a little photo enclave where gamers– ahem, game industry professionals and journalists could get their photo taken with a real live Master Chief. At least, as long as you aren’t too tall.

Writing for Kill Screen, the superhumanly 6’8″ Ben Richardson recounts his story of stopping by the photo booth during the closing hours of E3 only to be informed by the photo attendants “You can’t stand there.”

After protesting and receiving the same answer, Richardson settled for standing just off the podium in front of the Chief, so that they appear around the same height. Is it any surprise that Richardson looks like he’s about to dropkick someone for the sheer arbitrariness of the situation? Minor event though this might seem, it raises some interesting questions about image control: apparently, someone being photographed as taller than Master Chief shatters the mythic illusion of the character as, literally, larger than life. As Richardson himself argues,

Does it affect Microsoft’s bottom line if an E3 promotional snapshot reveals the fact that Master Chief is not always seven feet tall? Is anyone allowed to make Master Chief look small? What if Shaq wants a picture? Someone knows the answer to these questions, and that makes me a little scared.

For the record, I also got my picture taken with the Chief while I was at E3 (see below). I didn’t get any flak about being too wide around the middle. Those booth photographers are clearly all heightists.

You should read the whole piece at Kill Screen.