Is it "gaming the situation" to express your love to your partner? To show them that you value them? I think not.
That being said, given the Five Love Languages, one might be wise to figure out your partner's love languages before deciding what to do for them for Valentine's Day. The time I filled my husband's car with red construction paper hearts for him to find when he left for work was probably a gigantic waste of time, since his love languages (I later deduced) were quality time and gifts. An expensive titanium ice ax would have been a better move (although not in our budget that year!).
Among the best gifts I ever got (not Valentine's day) were from a college boyfriend. He was a very poor graduate student (didn't even have a car, which in Southern California was a real handicap at the time). But when we first met and he found out it was my birthday (I was volunteering in the recycling center near his lab) he came back and brought me a nice pottery honey jar from his office. Later when he would come to see me he would bring me flowers he picked on the walk from the bus stop. It was the thoughtfullness that got me. Sigh. He's still the one that got away.
