If you don't want to make a living out of game development or programming, then yea flash or XNA is probably a good bet. XNA seems to be a pretty robust platform. Flash is good for quick casual facebook games.
Really though, if you're able to make a game with XNA, you're already good enough to take the beginner CS course at a college without failing, you could use it as a stepping stone into a CS career. CS jobs are in the top 10 best working environments, according to some sources. Err probably regular programming, game developers have crunch times which are very stressful.
Haha, I guess I didn't make this too clear. This is simply going to be a hobby, and, like Badspot with Blockland, if any of my games gain enough of a following I might put more attention into it. However, there is no way I could make a living soley in CS as I don't really have the attention or patients. This Tuesday I'll take the final for my Intro to Computer Science class as this is my freshmen year of college. I do think programming is enjoyable, but I don't have the ability to look through lines of code for hours a day, every day. I'm actually studying to be a Network Engineer, so CS still has a lot of beneficial concepts for me, including knowing a few languages, so that's another reason.
I wanted to be a game developer, then I realized that game design was what I am good at.
Good luck getting a job. For a long time (and even today), I really wanted to be a game designer as I always have a couple of ideas I think would make excellent games. Though now, I realize that those games will never get made unless I take the first step and get them started. It's only then that people will realize what I'm doing and I'll have enough credibility to construct a team, lessing my load, and then maybe eventually leaving me to soley come up with ideas as my team constructs them. But someone who does nothing but comes up with ideas is a rare thing. Most game designers start as programmers or in some other profession in the video game industry.
You are so loving stupid. It's not even funny. Get out.
Instead of posting a complete waste of everyone's time, you could be constructive in your criticism and post why he is stupid. Then he'd learn to correct whatever made him stupid and you'd both be better for it. It's not wrong to have a direction for your life, though he might not know exactly what comes with that direction or what's required to take it. He is not stupid though, as he pointed out one of the biggest issues that face people who look into the gaming industry, which happens to be the reason I'm not creating a career out of it.
