[jarsin]

here is the a basic example. https://ethereum.org/greeter

more in depth tutorials exist on ethereum.org

[bryanrasmussen]

as far as the language goes - that is a very verbose "hello world".

does the level of verbosity decrease as you get into more advanced applications?

[whypeoplepeople]

Not really, but dApps aren't supposed to have huge source codes. Much more important is having efficient and correct code, because each instruction your contract runs has a cost. If that really annoys you, there are other languages that can be used to build dApps, and more certainly to come.