You do know you have a zillion other options, too, yeah?

Thank you all for replying. From the answers I've gotten, I'll most likely stick to java and try to "master" it before moving on to anything else. I'll probably purchase a few books and read some tutorials. It shouldn't be too hard since I have some background knowledge. Once again, thanks a lot. I've been trying to decide which language I would begin with for some time now.

--Cedric Miles

I would not worry about java preformance either, you could probabbly make a game like doom 3 on todays hardware, and it would run fine.