BigBadWolf... I'm a nubsausage here also...
I used to teach. I had 14 students a week, and I maintained about that number for over 2 years....I'm a 70's and 80's hard rocker, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, etc and yadda....
When I used to teach regularly, beginners, which I would initially consider you, it went this way......
Use an acoustic guitar if possible. This builds hand strength you simply cannot build on an electric. and fatigue means you're done playing, and that's no fun.
Get a good chord dictionary. I like the ones that show a D chord using only four strings, having the 5th and 6th strings marked off with an X. I've seen some newer dictionaries, and they seem to have a 'newer' way... the 4 string D is the classic, every guitarist knows this way to play it.
Learn your open chords, what we call the cowboy chords. C, D, E, F, G, and A.
D, C, G get you Sweet Home Alabama, a tried and true, beat into-the-ground tune, but roll with this... besides, strummed differently, it's like 400 other popular songs.....
These, my friend, you gotta memorize. No way around it, assuming you want to know your craft.
Each string listed as included in the chord needs to ring, and be heard. Each and every one the book says is included. Get this point right before anything else. You may adjust your hand vs. how you currently play a particular chord now... make it so.
Once you get the chords to sound good, then worry about changing/switching.
Last I'll go into here, is switching, and an exercise to help with speed....
Using C and D , and being able to count to 4
Play and hold C, where each note is heard, ie; correctly.
Same for D.
Back to C, but, strum once, as you strum, you count '1', let go of the chord and begin to set up the D. The jedi mind trick, is to have it all set up, ready to strum, on the next 1 count.....
So: C, 2,3,4 D, 2,3,4, C,2,3,4 etc and yadda.
So you stay interested, after a few, pick another two chords, lather, rinse repeat.
Youl'll have pairs that work easy together, another pair that are a pain. Learn 'em.
Once you get the 4 count down on any pair, add a 3rd chord.
After 3 chords, change 4 count to a 3 count.
C, 2,3, D, 2,3, keeping the time interval approx the same. It IS cheating if you slow down the 3 count
Take three chords to a 1 count.......
At this point, you use:
E, D, A, and play some Communication Breakdown, by Led Zeppelin.
Along this path, as you see fit, add in the Minor variants of the chords.
Only Two Barre Chord forms are really necessary for a few months....
Scales, are notes from a chord. Thats all. What to do with those notes, and when, is the tricky part for most of us
Scales are for down the road. You may have skill that is beyond this, but, you should 'go back' and become edumacated
The best scale book I can recommend, and is still in print:
'Scales and Modes in the Beginning', by Ron Middlebrook
http://www.amazon.com/Scales-Modes-B.../dp/0898981514
This book alone, will make it easy for you to understand Pentatonic Scales, Blues Scales, Modes, and much more, in a 'omg I can grasp this' way. But, it's assumed you know those chords !!!!
Chords are covered, but it's not a dictionary.
Over time, with that dictionary, learn other forms of say A Minor, and all those 'cowboy' chords.....you can play G in like a million places, each sounding tonally different, without playing a Barre chord......
Thats about your next 10 years of learning, between 2 books, and an hour or three a night.
Add in those DVD's, other books, and you should be all silly in no time.... just, spend no more money on books, tapes, DVD's, yoga, just get the 2 books I recommended, and go for it.
EDIT: Actually, the online chord dictionary linked to here on this site is precisely what you want....!!!!!!
http://www.howtotuneaguitar.org/chords/ - Chord Dictionary
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