3d studio max

First I dont conisder myself a nerd, but if nerds make the money that is okay with me .I used max for about six months and then switched to Maya, they are both great programs it dosen''t really make much of a difference, especially for games since the poly tools are basicly the same. If money isnt an issue I would buy Maya 5.0 unlimited just because it is so powerful. Be prepared to spend a ton of time learning the Gui. And your not making any game with a 3d app just the models(in case you were that green).
Hope that helped

I wouldn''t say your wasting your time if you are learning. But yes 3d studio Max is just a tool to create graphics, 3d models, animation, particles, etc that then can be used in your game by using DirectX or openGl, etc. I have heard of people using Mel which is the native to Maya for some game stuff, but if you want a program that is graphical and able to have user interaction(programming) I would suggest learning Flash mx, its a place to start that isn''t nearly as overwhelming as dealing with windows and directX. Hope that helped.