Hi Jorvall

Re the books you're looking for...

I've bought two books by a fellow called Tom Miller. I've found both of them excellent for just getting you into coding and getting some results.

Managed DirectX 9 Kick Start: Graphics and Game Programming ISBN:0672325969

Beginning 3D Game Programming ISBN:0672326612

I think both have a very 3D bent towards them, but considering DirectDraw is deprecated from the SDK, it looks like you're probably better learning the 3D basics and just build it as a 2D game.

Hope this helps
Andre

Some people need books to learn things and some don't.
I buy a lot books but never have the patient to read them.
I have learn a lot by copy other people source code and asking myself why they do it this way.
You can try it out to see if this will help you learn things faster.
Don't copy things without thinking about how they done it, only if you think about how it is done you will understand things and you will be able to program your own source code.
You practice a lot by doing this way and remember how it is done.
If i read a book, i already forgot most of the stuff by the time i finish the book.
My advice is finish VB first if you already feel comfortable with it.
If you already understand a programming language then it is not difficult to learn another one.
You don't need to build a mmorpg from the bottom,(that is really a lot of work) their are a lot game engines available,you can use open source or commercial engines.
http://www.devmaster.net/engines/
It is easier and faster to find a good engine first and then build your game around it.
Lots of source code available on the internet.
Just download all the source code you think you need to build your game( Delete all the junk code)
You will only succeed if you know what you want to build, for example how it looks like, what functions your game will have.
Don't start if you don't know yet what it will look like, you will be dissapointed.
The programming is a piece of cake if you already know how to program it, but the artwork is really a headache.
I am playing with POSER version 6 and 3dsmax from a friend first, if i know how to use it, then i will think about to buy a cheaper program that almost can do the same.
These programs are 3d, but i read that you are planning to make a 2d mmorpg,but still the artwork is a headache.
Hope that this has help you a bit

I add my advice not to do a MMORPG. While the programming itself might not be TOO horrific for a simple framework, you'll nonetheless have to learn internet+database programming which are normally reasonably advanced topics.
But the main issue is for a MMORPG you need to set up servers etc and since you don't have access to stuff, how would you do that?! As already said, I reckon the single-player version would be best on a single PC. You could in theory design it to quite easily expand to a massive game later but it's unlikely a new programmer has such great forsight in their design -I'm sure few people on GDnet could do it!

I purposefully chose a racing game for my big project, because I reckon the amount of content needed is about the lowest for any modern game, except maybe a football or other sport sim. For my game I need tracks and cars, plus textures etc. But for any type of RPG you need a huge amount of content which isn't part of the programming but could take longer to do than the programming!

If you're really desperate to make a mmorpg why not take this path...


Multiplayer Route:

Text Based Adventure -> MUD -> MMO Text Based Adventure

Graphics Route:

Text Based Adventure -> Isometric RPG -> 3D Rpg etc


And the routes are non-exclusive and build your skills as you go (from easy to difficult)

;P