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Honest question....how do you choose your starter?

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CrashBash

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I suppose there is no "right" way to answer this, but I'm still curious to know this.

Do you choose the starter that will have an advantage in the first gym? Do you choose the starter that will be the most effective overall gym-wise? Do you pick what appears to be the strongest? Do you just go with the one you like the look of the most? Or is there another reason?

I've not been playing Pokemon that long, but I picked Oshawott in White 2 because I liked the look of it, and Fennekin in Y for the 1st Gym type advantage.
 
Good question...
I think I usually pick it base on which one I like the most--and when I;m starting the game and don't know anything about movepools, gyms, and the like, it usually comes down to which one I like look of most. For instance, I chose Oshawott in White because he was an adorable little otter, and I love otters! In X I picked Chespin because he was sort of goofy-looking, and I liked it. On later playthroughs I usually just choose one that I haven't used yet.
 
On my first playthrough, just whichever one looks the coolest. Squirtle, Brotodile, Mudkip, Piplup, Oshawatt, and Chespin. Nowadays we can get the other two pretty early on, anyway.
 
Strongest/best looking.

* Charizard/Charizard lol
* Typhlosion/Feraligatr tie, both are strong and good looking
* Swampert/Blaziken
* Empoleon/Infernape
* Samurott/Samurott, but honorable mention Serperior, so Smugleaf fans won't go crazy
* Greninja/Delphox
 
Previously it was whoever I just immediately liked. 1st gen was Squirtle all day, super fly little turtle. 2nd gen, Cyndaquil, because I just couldn't imagine what it would evolve into and was dying to find out. 3rd gen was Torchic because I knew about Blaziken and like fighting types. 4th was Turtwig because he was so freaking adorable. 5th gen went to Oshawott because, again, freaking adorable. 6th gen came around and I let my fiance decide. She couldn't get over Fennekin and ended up having me take him for my journey. At first,I was apprehensive, mainly because Chespin looked so cool. I played with Fennekin for a bit, got it to Braxien and then eventually up to good ol' Delphox and by the end of our journey he had grown on me and actually became one of my favorite starters.
 
In Blue I always chose Bulbasaur because it let me skim through the first two gyms easily (Brought a Geodude into the third, swept it). I would choose either Cyndaquil or Chikorita in Silver because their mid-level evolutions always played well with my strategies. I skipped third and fourth gen. In Black 2 I chose Tepig because who doesn't like fire types, and my first playthrough on Y was Froakie for the hype. My second playthrough was Fenniken, because I really REALLY hate raising psychic types, so I figured this way at least it being my starter's final form, I at least have a tiny advantage.
 
Combination of which one looks the best to me and which one is best in battle.
 
I usually take future movesets, team niches, and all-around usefulness into account before choosing. When I can't decide between two, I've begun flipping a coin (best of three) to decide.
 
Appearance is pretty much the determining factor. If I don't like the way it or its evolutions look, I'm not picking it regardless of stats or type. Like in XY, Froakie's evolution family ultimately trumps the other two Kalos starters, but since I find Froakie and Greninja ugly, I didn't pick it. And I don't pick based on how useful it'll be against gyms since I'm gonna catch other Pokémon anyway.

My choices have been: all for Kanto but Squirtle first, Chikorita, Treecko, Chimchar, Oshawott/Snivy, Fennekin/Chespin.
 
What does it evolve into and and how cool it looks. That's just how I play, also, I account for types on a second play-through. So just designs for me.
 
My way of picking is...strange.
I like Bulbasaur and Chikorita because my name means grass.

I would go for Mudkip or Torchic in either one because Treecko looked scary...

Pearl was a easy Piplup. I wanted a different Pokemon from my brother, who got Turtwig, and I never liked Monkeys.

If I gotten 5th gen, I would like Oshawott. It is adorable, plus I don't care for pigs or snakes...

6th gen was a little more serious. I only had one playthrough, and so I wanted until the fire evolution lines were revealed. I like foxes, and I am a fan of psychic pokemon. Chespin...looked a little too goofy for me, and Froakie was gonna be the next choice. Actually, if Fennekin wasn't evolving into a psychic, I would have went with Froakie.
 
For the earlier Gen(First to 3rd), Im basically going for the looks. Since Bulbasaur looks like an alive plant and I do not want a turtle, I chose Charmander. When Silver/Gold came, I chose Totodile(water type) because I already chose Charmander(fire type) on the previous Gen, and I was not disappointed. When RubySapphire came, I chose Treeko(grass), and again, I was not disappointed.

But when Pearl/Diamond came, I became stat and type conscious and since Empoleon is a Water/Steel type(and I'm a fan of Steel types!!), I chose Piplup even though the speed is not that high.

For Black/White, I had hard time choosing since the stat distribution for the three starters are so weird. but chose Tepig because of its balance distribution for Atk(for Fighting moves)/Sp.Atk(for Fire non-contact moves) stats.

Then X/Y came. And I got curious about that fox that has Fire/Psychic with high speed and high Sp.Atk. So I chose Fennekin.

For ORAS, I'm thinking if I'm going to choose Treeko again or will go to Torchic. But the Grass/Dragon conversion of Sceptile upon Mega form is somewhat cool with high speed.

There it goes.
 
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I obviously do it different to most people.

I try and build a team in my mind before I start playing.
I might instantly prefer one to the others but if there is for example no new fire types like in Sinnoh, I then went with Chimchar.

OR, sometimes if I struggle with one (Serperior) I restart and get a new one (Oshawott)

So far I've had

Red - Charm ander
Yellow - Pika chu
Gold - Toto dile
Ruby - Tor chic
FireRed - Bulba saur
Emerald - Tree cko
Diamond - Chim char
Platinum - Chim char
HeartGold - Chik orita
Black - Osha wott
Black2 - Te pig
 
My, I tend to pick them on their general aesthetics. Coincidentally, my picks turn out to also be the ones that are faster and/or stronger on attacks than their counterparts (Charmander, Cyndaquil, Treecko, Chimchar*, Snivy, Fennekin). I pick blind if possible (the only ones whose evolutions I already knew full well about were the Sinnoh starters), and their evolutions do not disappoint. (With exception for Braixen's design, but Delphox's design makes up for it.)

( * - I don't particularly like any of the Sinnoh starters, so I viewed Chimchar more as "least unfavorite" than "favorite".)
 
I typically pick my starter based on how well they (with or without help from other available pokemon) can give me a strong advantage early game so I can get stronger pokemon more easily.

Gen1: Bulbasaur; Type advantages against Brock, Misty and LT Surge makes for an easy early game so I can open up more options. Razor leaf always lands critical hits in the original games so its very spammable with 25 pp and is learned relatively early compared to Charizard and Blastoise's staple attacks.

Gen2: Chikorita; I picked it because I thought a starter similar to Bulbasaur would again be the best for me and I had high hopes when it learned razor leaf as its first move. Unfortunately the first two gyms weren't very kind to grass types but fortunately I caught a Geodude which made quick work of Falkner and Bugsy. After that it didn't do so hot in most other gyms but that's fine since I established a strong team by the time I got to Morty and it handles normal trainers fairly well.

Gen3: Mudkip; That ground typing it picks up upon evolving really makes the difference. In combination with its high offenses and defense it creams the first 4 gyms by itself easily. Plus it learns earthquake without TM26 as a bonus.

Gen4: Chimchar; Not much to say it was either Infernape or Rapidash as my source for fire damage.

Gen5: Oshawott: Unova surprisingly had a shortage of strong and early acquired water types. Tympole's line was alright though even if Seismitoad is kinda weak late game and looks terrible. Then again the other two starter choices weren't very useful for in-game.

Gen6: Froakie; I already planned on getting Bulbasaur from prof Sycamore so Chespin is out, I also planned on using Talonflame for early game convenience and getting Gardevoir for a fairy type so Fenniken is out leaving me with Froakie. Good thing too because I wasn't sure what to do for my water type. I considered using Marill but it can be tricky to evolve Azurill and faces serious movepool problems until level 20, plus if it doesn't have huge power its basically useless.
 
I usually pick my starter depending on which one I like the most. Sometimes I need to see the final evolution to make my final choice. Whenever I pick a certain one, I end up using it again in replays and other things.
 
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