推特藍勾勾之亂恐讓遊戲假消息橫行 Epic執行長批抵制者都「魯蛇跟暴徒」

社群媒體巨頭推特（Twitter）為了強推付費訂閱制，正式移除先前免費的認證標籤，許多名人憤而拒絕花錢，先前推特老闆馬斯克（Elon Musk）煞氣地幫部分名人付錢，一度還與知名作家史蒂芬·金（Stephen King）吵了起來，又傳出遊戲大廠推特的認證標籤被官方移除後，他們不想為此付費，導致遊戲圈假消息橫行。

根據 GameSpot 報導，近日一個自稱「EA Sports Big」回歸的帳號發表經典滑雪遊戲《急速雪板王》（SSX Tricky）即將復刻的消息，不過 EA Sports Big 早在 2008 年以後就不再用於美商藝電極限運動遊戲系列，遊戲角色原型的傳奇滑板選手 Tony Hawk 也陷入推特標籤之亂，開玩笑地表示，那些時常認不出他的人（長相太路人？）可能會遇到更多問題。

Trolls: “Are you the real Tony Hawk?”
me: yes, last I checked
Twitter: check again pic.twitter.com/SvI7VepJ5W
— Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk)April 21, 2023

根據推特最新政策，組織必須每月支付 1,000 美元（約新台幣三萬元）以獲黃金勾勾標章的認證，很多組織都放棄花這筆錢或只申請藍勾勾認證（每月 8 美元），且這遠非遊戲圈專有的問題，像紐約時報這樣的媒體巨頭也聲明了他們不會花錢訂閱，美國總統府白宮也是。

We're bringing back Lucy Liu, Billy Zane, Oliver Platt, Macy Gray, and David Arquette to reprise their roles in SSX Tricky HD. They were all actually in the original game. Look it up.
— brian feldman (@bafeldman)April 21, 2023

百萬遊戲 YouTuber Wario64 之前也被強迫授予藍勾勾。

apparently I got the blue checkmark again, but I didn't subscribe to Blue nor do I have any of the features that come with it https://t.co/eSsR1fRtRT
— Wario64 (@Wario64)April 22, 2023

Epic Games 執行長 Tim Sweeney 在馬斯克入主推特以前，對過去的認證機制非常反感，理由是審核機制不夠開放平等，他認為只有少數菁英或官方認為「值得注意」的人才會獲得認證。

In summary, old Twitter verification was promoted as identity verification, but open only to elites they deemed "noteworthy"; it was doled out to friends of employees without identity verification or noteworthiness ; and it was revoked as punishment for speech.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic)April 22, 2023

是在這波勾勾之亂，Tim Sweeney 又大放厥詞，說那些抵制付費訂閱者的人都是魯蛇跟暴徒，因為這些人崇尚過去的認證制度，發起 #BlockTheBlue 排擠他人。

People in this #BlockTheBlue pressure campaign are losers and goons. They're the cool kids from junior high who worked to exclude we nerds from cool kid events, plus the losers who joined in to gain cred. The elite-only verification system sucked, been criticizing it since 2018. https://t.co/KSRItcc26l
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic)April 22, 2023

This was followed by waves of Twitter employees realizing they'd been granted a social commodity (or income stream for the crooked) and started handing out blue checks in exchange for favors or IOUs. At peak, friends of friends of Twitter employees were brokering verification.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic)April 22, 2023

未來若馬斯克沒有主動幫遊戲大廠付錢，玩家得花更多時間檢查流傳於推特的遊戲消息，GameSpot 預測這類假消息將在未來幾內激增。

另一方面，包括金色（組織/企業）、灰色認證（政府）標誌，通過認證的機構能為旗下成員提供藍色認證標誌，並帳號名稱後方加入所屬團隊 LOGO，藍勾勾也會連結到所屬組織的頁面。