At first you would wonder why I'd even ask. It would seem obvious that over-estimating anythings worth would come off as a negetive thing. But for games, I think it's different. And I have a pretty good example.

E3 this year yeilded many good sounding titles and sequels that I am no looking forward to. The anticipation for those games makes me excited about being a gamer and gives me something to look forward to in the future. Point in case is that Uncharted 2 was announced... having not played the first one, I couldn't really be hyped about the second. So I actually went out and got the first and and am currently playing through it. And I like it. And now, I am actually looking forward to getting my hands on Uncharted 2.

Even if the game isn't all that good, the feeling of excitment and anticipation was, over all, a good thing... right? I like to think that there are good things coming. But even if there wasn't, I still have a good deal of other games to play or re-play. But I was just curious what you guys might think.

I agree, being hyped over a game can be fun and it's sad to see the it disappear when the game is released. Right now I'm hyped over the new AvP game which will allow gamers to choose from Marines, Aliens, and Predators. There's not much popularity behind it but I'm anticipating it's release.

Uncharted 2 is going to be one great game; new story, characters, and a multiplayer mode. Sounds like a lot of fun to me.

Anticipation is fun but disappointment sucks. It is very easy to have both anticipation AND dissapointment when the game is in the "preview" stage, let alone when it is in the early development (i.e. the "that will never really be in the game but we are pretending not to realize that yet") stage.

I, however, prefer to confine my approach in a more balanced way to the "review" stage. I still have anticipation for games that I will someday get to play when the games are well reviewed or if I like the launch demo and videos, etc. Even though I don't get to fantasize about all the promises the developers and publishers make or the things I dream "could be" there at least the potential for actual disappointment is drastically reduced, as is the likelihood that I will waste my money.

I still have great anticipation for games that I am sure some of you have finished long ago. That to me is what makes me excited about being a gamer.

I still think over-hyping most things is bad. But I'm not a proper gamer, so I can't say anything about E3.
Here is a professional opinion, though.

But Yahtzee doesn't like ANYTHING.

Actually, he does. He just doesn't get paid for that.

And honestly, that E3 thing was pretty much spot-on, as far as my knowledge goes. Also, "Super Mario Time-Space Continuum".

I think it is. And I say "think" because I'm trying to figure out if in this case, over-hyping = over-advertising... can you advertise a game without over-hyping it?
Because advertising is good for any game if done right, which can lead to anticipation of the game.
Anyway, I'll think abou it before commenting further

This has nothing to do with advertisement... this is your own personal feelings towards a game coming out. And if it's bad to let yourself really get pumped up for it's release.

Oh I was thinking more of a company trying to over-hype their game than of individuals letting themselves get over-hyped.
In that case, in my personal opinion,there have been few over-hyped games that I didn't really like. Yes, there have been a few disappointments, but I still enjoyed them.
When I'm hyped about the game, I'm more likely to look for any kind of info, which will allow me to decide if I'll end up buying it in the end. Better to be disappointed before buying it than after.

(OK, to be honest, I'm not sure if I'm making sense here.)

I also kind of thought you were taking into account hype by the developers even though my answer reflected self induced hype. The problem is that sometimes the developers have strong influence over your self induced hype.

My classic example is Halo 2. I was a big fan of the original Halo and had read the EGM articles, seen the clips, etc. for Halo 2. Everyone was hyped for the game myself included and one thing that got me the most hyped was the video of the E3 demo which was playable to those in attendance rather than a mere video for those in attendance. I loved it and couldn't wait to play it in the game. After all it was playable for them so it was sure to make the game so I thought naievely. Well it wasn't there and to add insult to injury as I waited in anticpation like a little boy of "when is it going to come up", they decide to cut the ending short in the "we ran out of time but we are calling it a..." cliffhanger. I was VERY dissapointed. It severely affected my enjoyment of the title to this day.

Now, did I do this to myself or was it the developers. Well obviously it was both. It was self-hype because I loved Halo 1 but it was the developers that were misleading all the way into the release, but the reason I was less culpable then is because I didn't know better. I was personally unware at that time how much the industry promises and hypes without being able to deliver.

But most of us know by now to be skeptical. We've been burned enough by gaming. And some of us realize that playing the game needs to be the point, not dreaming about playing the game. This, really is my whole point.

The sad thing is that I very much enjoyed the multiplayer and still enjoyed the campaign somewhat (but it had other problems which were a dissapointment not because of hype but because of reasonable expectation based on how good the Halo 1 campaign was). In other words if I didn't get hyped for the game I would have enjoyed it MUCH more.

My goal is that people are happy. So if it makes some more happy to enjoy the hype then I really say "more power to you". It's not for me. Just don't support crap games just because you were looking forward to them because we all suffer. If the game isn't crap then self-hype is not likely to hurt so long as you don't have specific expectations.