Payment-systems Memes

Someone just discovered the beautiful world of logical consistency in payment systems, and game publishers are NOT having it. The logic is flawless: if you can revoke a purchase at any time (like when a game gets delisted or your account gets banned), then refunds should work the same way, right? RIGHT? But nope! Game publishers treat their terms of service like an asymmetric API - they get full CRUD operations on your purchases, while you're stuck with read-only access after the refund window closes. It's the classic case of "rules for thee but not for me" implemented in production. They'll yank your digital goods faster than a race condition, but try getting your money back six months later? That's a 403 Forbidden. The gaming industry basically wrote a one-way transaction system where idempotency only applies when it benefits them. Peak business logic right there.