How's XNA?

Has anyone here ever tried programming with Microsoft's XNA? It looks like a great engine to start to learn C# with. I want try to learn some kind of programming language over the summer. This book looks like a great guide:
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-XNA-2-0-Game-Programming/dp/1590599241/ref=pd_sim_b_img_3

Can anyone that's used XNA or programmed with C# comment on how easy and quick they are to learn?

 

Well i think if you plan programming as a hobby xna would be good it is pretty easy to learn but just remember that you have to pay a monthly fee to develop on the 360. I personally didn't get to far with xna because soon after i started my parents let me take c++ game programming courses on game institute and i think that c++ is a good language to learn at some point if you want to get into professional development. Oh and you may want to go here for more on game programming the forum community is pretty active.

 

Yeah, I was planning to program as a hobby now, then when I graduate I'm planning to take a course on game design at Full Sail University. How long did it take you to get into programming a real game? I'll probably learn Apple's Xcode, too, so I can port some of my C# code into an iPhone app.

 

I went to DigiPen for a while. Make sure you know what you are getting in to. They treat it a lot more like a trade school than a scholastic, artistic, or scientific institution. Personally, I'd say try to find a regular university with a special group or school within it that deals with games. As far as programming a real game, at least a DP, they had a proprietary development engine that they used first and second semester, so you start development of sorts right from the get go. By second semester, they had us writing a text based game. 3rd semester started in on graphical games.