If you're just starting out with programming, I'd suggest looking into a game-centric language, such as GM. I've taken GM for a stroll, and it's a great language to cut your teeth on. It also (and this is the most important reason to start out with GM!) gives you an idea of how you should lay out your variables in code for a game. It took me years to learn this property of programming games, since I learned by trial and error rather than by example.
I know it sounds as if this is such a meager reason to go with GM, but it's really so darn important that you would be crazy to overlook the oportunity.
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Another big reason to go with GM: C++, VB, Delphi, most of the languages out there lack easy drawing mechanisms - and the ones that come integrated (such as VB's picture object) are woefully inadequate for programming games (not to knock VB: with the right amount of know-how, one can program a DirectX-based drawing object in VB that rivals drawing managers implemented in any other language). With GM, you can draw sprites and play music right from the beginning: with any other language, you will spend weeks, if not longer, fuddling around with tutorials trying to implement a drawing manager, and I promise you that your first try - like VB's picture object - will be slow and inadequate.
Eventually, you'll run into the boundaries of GM, and you'll want to do things that aren't possible in that language. Then, you'll be more than ready to jump head-first into another language. But you're going to want to get your feet wet with GM. =)
