Here is how I learned to play, without a "live" teacher, and using fun songs that I want to play.
You need a couple of good resources for a variety of songs. Then you need someone to show you how to play them (video!). You definitely need to learn all of the open chords (A-G, major, minor, 7th), and there are lots of You Tube lessons for learning to play chords. Here some some of the best free resources I have found (if you use them, you should donate money for the great service they provide):
http://www.youtube.com/user/yourguit...45/31ANlMTZFyk Some excellent basic video lessons, and he shows you exactly how to play a bunch of great songs.
http://www.heartwoodguitar.com/ Rob at Heartwood makes learning easy and fun, lots of songs on his Chord Charts page... DEFINITELY subscribe to his strumming pattern videos... this will get you started.
Just these two resources are enough for ANYONE to get started, but these are not any good unless you play, play, play... one hour a day, rain or shine... no excuses. (Notice that I don't say "practice"... this is PLAY time, have fun with it)
CHORDS & STRUMMING: Start with just one song, but don't worry about being perfect (that comes with time... you may have to practice a simple song for 6 months or a year to play it well enough that you will be comfortable playing it in front of people). Once you can play all of the chords SLOWLY, pick another song that adds another one or two chords. Keep doing this with an initial goal of starting one new song every 2 weeks.
GOALS: If you do this for 6 months and play every day, you will be able to get to 15-20 chords reasonably well, and you will be learning some reasonable strumming rhythm. After one year, you will be able to play 30-40 chords and 10 songs in front of people. This is a great beginning goal for Real Year #1.
TECHNIQUE: The most important thing... you will want to play at the real speed of a song... don't do it! You need to first learn to play slowly and in time... focus on accuracy and relaxation, earn your speed through lots of repetition. You have to go slow first in order to ever have a chance of going fast!
If you can discipline yourself to play daily for one year, you will learn 10 songs you can play well, you will have another 10 you are still working on, and you have a chance of becoming reasonably good in a few more years if you keep at it.
Now, no more excuses... play