I was just wondering what language would be a good choice for developing a game server to support a large (thousands) number of users? I dabbled in python, but realized that it would just be too much trouble since it doesn't spawn threads across cores (meaning an 8 core server=1 core server). I also didn't really like the language (that "self" stuff grossed me out).
I know that C++ is the language for the job in terms of performance, but I hate it. I don't want to deal with its sloppy syntax and I like my hand to be held by managed languages. This brings me to C# and Java, but I am open to other languages. I love the simplicity of .NET, but I was wondering if, speed wise, this would be good for the job. Keep in mind since this will be deployed on a Linux server, it would be running on the Mono framework - not sure if that matters. I know that Java is syntax-wise very similar to .Net, but my experience with it is limited. Are there any frameworks out there for it or anthing to ease in the development?
Please help me and my picky self arrive on a solution.
UPDATE: I didn't mean to sound so picky, and I really don't think I was. The only language I really excluded was C++, Python I don't like because of the scalability problem. I know that there are ways of communicating between processes, but if I have an 8 core server, why should I need to make 8 processes? Is there a more elegant solution?
What are your objectives?  Not the creation of the game itself, but why are you creating it?
If you're doing it to learn a new language, then pick the one that seems the most interesting to you (i.e., the one you most want to learn).
If it is for any other reason, then the best language will be the one that you already know best and enjoy using most.  This will allow you to focus on working out the game logic and getting something up and running so that you can see progress and remain motivated to continue, rather than getting bogged down in details of the language you're using and losing interest.
If your favorite language proves inadequate in some ways (too slow, not expressive enough, whatever), then you can rewrite the problem sections in a more suitable language when issues come up - and you won't know the best language to address the specific problems until you know what the problems end up being.  Even if your chosen language proves entirely unsuitable for final production use and the whole thing has to be rewritten, it will give you a working prototype with tested game logic, which will make dealing with the new language far easier.
Good language to develop a game server in?