But some lessons I have learned from the gift exchange are more subtle. For example, some people spend a lot of time picking out their gift, sometimes thinking about gift ideas for months before the exchange party, while other people just grab something during their lunch hour on the day of the party. There seems to be no correlation between how much time someone spends picking out a gift and how popular the gift is (where I base a gift's popularity on how many people try to steal it). Sometimes a gift is really popular, and sometimes it's not, and it's hard to tell beforehand what people will really want.

Making an RPG is similar. You can have a lot of ideas, but until you implement them and see how others like them, it's hard to tell what people will like. Some people think that spending a lot of time on a feature makes it good. In fact, I have seen truly awful ideas that a person has spent months developing, and I have seen wonderful ideas that have been implemented in five minutes. Again, you can't always predict what will be fun and what will not. You try your best and must be willing to accept criticism.​