Starters

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

They're your first Pokemon. If I don't keep them throughout the entire game, I feel guilty for ditching them (Yellow is the exception; I had no qualms about dumping the rat off in the PC box and never letting it see the light of day again). I keep my starter throughout the entire game and use them regularly.

With that said, STOP MAKING FIRE STARTERS WITH A FIGHTING SUBTYPE! Three generations of that type combo is more than enough!

Sorry, just had to get that starter-related rant off my chest.

 

[Mentalii]

I always keep them in my entire game. They're also often the strongest Pokémon of my team, so they're pretty important for me. The only time the starter annoyed me was in DPP, Empoleon's double type disturbed me a lot so I neglected it compared to the starters of my other games.

 

[pokedevil]

Of course I keep my starters. They gain levels faster than every other Pokemon you can get (aside from Traded ones, but Traded Starters take the cake), their stats are the best (aside from Legendaries), they are extremely versatile (capable of learning a ton of TMs and HMs), and they evolve sooner then most.

There are only a few pokemon in any game that can really compare to starters, and they all require a lot more work. Not only do starters back a punch, they're easy.

 

[Aerinoctis]

My starter is almost always my strongest leveled team member, only because I usually only use my starter up until the fourth gym in nearly every generation game that I've played, with the exception of when I choose a type that has a type disadvantage to the first gym and need something there to counter-balance it all. I do ditch my starter in some instances, though. In my White version, I ditched my starter after I beat the plot of the game and rebattled the Elite Four. I have really sucky memory, but I'm sure there were other games where I've done the same. I remember during my first play through of Diamond, I chose Turtwig, and I ditched it as a Torterra when I tried facing the Elite Four and found that it was just wasting valuable room on my team.

 

[Katie the Friendly Ghost]

I'm at the point where I've played with all the starters so many times that I just feel obligated to box them. :P I mean for the first couple runs of a game, you have to use the starter. But after that it just gets tiresome.

 

[Ninjagon]

I keep my starters until better pokemon become available. Then i grind the better pokemon to the level the starter was and continue my journey.

 

[Haseyo]

I probably should mentioned, this is for in-game purposes only such as the story. Once I beat the Elite Four and start training for battling the Frontier / PWT / friends, my starter generally gets dropped unless it's Blaziken, Swampert or Infernape. They just have weak movepools compared to other post-E4 options, and their "balance" starts to fade once the game turns from "Powerhouse your way through (all offensive moves)" to "Sweepers, walls, and tactics."

 

[Ramos123]

Gotta keep the starters. Even as I got into competitive battling I could never let go of my Samurott, the starter pokemon reflect the player; throughout the journey you grow and change, and like the starter you become stronger and learn new techniques.

 

[Golurks Were Meant to Fly]

I used to keep my starter the entire game, but I found that that made me lose interest in said game, using the same pokemon again. So, unless I've used the starter, I usually dump it as soon as I get a team member I want to keep on my team.

 

[Guest123_x1]

I almost always kept my starter with me for the entire game, on all the games that I've played, even if I end up changing all my other teammates throughout the storyline.
I've found that choosing your starter correctly is an important strategy, especially early on.
I kind of picked up this habit off of Ash always having his Pikachu with him.