My eventual goal is to make an MMO but I understand that I would need to get experience in a programming language for that, what are some good starter projects that will familiarize myself with C# ?

I like to recommend Blackjack or some basic form of 21 because you can implement the game with or without graphics and there's quite a bit of room to develop increasingly advanced features. If your ultimate goal is an MMO (which is a very lofty goal that is generally considered unattainable without a large team and millions in budget) then you might want to consider trying to get some sort of real time online Blackjack game working (which is likely a much more attainable goal for a small team but will still demand some solid experience to do well).

However if you're just starting out learning programming I'd recommend doing a Guess the Number game.

I like to recommend Blackjack or some basic form of 21 because you can implement the game with or without graphics and there's quite a bit of room to develop increasingly advanced features. If your ultimate goal is an MMO (which is a very lofty goal that is generally considered unattainable without a large team and millions in budget) then you might want to consider trying to get some sort of real time online Blackjack game working (which is likely a much more attainable goal for a small team but will still demand some solid experience to do well).

However if you're just starting out learning programming I'd recommend doing a Guess the Number game.

I know a smige of Java but the Blackjack idea seems good to get my feetwet in C#

good starter projects that will familiarize myself with C# ?

Good projects depend on your skill level.

Like the others, I recommend not starting with graphics. They're flashy and all, but they require significant work.

Assuming you've never programmed before and want to learn to program in C#:

1. The first few programs traditionally are writing something similar to "Hello, World!" to the console.
2. After you are comfortable with that, a simple 'guess the number' game is often a good goal. This gives you some flow control, loops, I/O, number generators.
3. After that, perhaps something a bit bigger like tic tac toe on a human-versus-human board.
4. After that, write an AI for your tic tac toe game.
5. Text-based card games or text adventures frequently follow those.
6. Once you're comfortable with a few things, pong is an ambitious first-graphics program.
7. Then build your pong up until you are comfortable with it, with features including menus, sound, and the rest.
8. Then with that as a base, a breakout game, then expand it to an arkanoid style game.
9. Now you're comfortable. Time to move up to an existing engine, or decide you want to keep going on your own from scratch.

Although lots of beginners gravitate to them, MMOs are out of the question until you've got a decade or so of experience or a few hundred million dollars to invest.

There is a lot of good advice and I have to agree with the idea of starting simple and then expand on it.

The best advice I can give you is to make sure once you start a project is that you take time to finish it. Being able to say you have finished n number of games is better then saying I've started n number of games. In the end you have something to show for your time and experience.

As you pick beginning projects focus on ones you should be able to complete in a couple of days or even a week. As you complete more games extend the time some more so that you start practicing being able to focus on your work and projects. Bigger projects can suffer from many different motivational issues so make sure to find ways to keep yourself motivated through out the project.

Good luck and have fun while you make your games.