In Game Pokemon: do you choose because you like them or they're 'strong'?

Strength doesn't matter in games in the slightest, so I just pick and use Pokemon I like. Seriously, strength in-game doesn't mean crap. I beat Drake's Salemence with a Petal Dancing Bellossom that somehow survived some Flamethrowers in a row. I even used a Corsola during one play through. Overall, when it comes to competitive battling my choices vary. But I see no reason to be stingy in-game.

I once went through an entire playthrough of SoulSilver with a Sunflora.

Yeah....

I only ever use Pokémon I like. Often this leaves me with glaring weaknesses to one particular type, but I get by it by giving my Pokémon versatile movesets and as clever a strategy as I can think of.

You don't have to have clever strategies to defeat people ingame. :D

Both :)

I choose cards, and would chose if I could afford the games, based on Pokemon that I like over strength. I get frowned on by trading card game experts everywhere. I find victory more fun when I like my team.

I couldn't care less about strength, as I'm not a competitive battler. I try to use new Pokemon each time I start a new file. If I used the same ones over and over, I would have never loved Ferrothorn, Lanturn, Lapras, etc. as much as I do today.

Several rules I always stick to when building in game team:

1 Have gender
2 Can evolve without having to be traded
3 Above 450 base stat when maximally evolved

So I think it's a mix of both, they are usually relatively strong at least in terms of stats. Then I like them because they feel more like raising a normal creature that has gender and can grow up.

I like all Pokémon, so I use all and any Pokémon, picking the ones I'm in the mood for atm.

Most of the Pokemon I like are good competitively. One exception is Serperior, I love that snake to death. A combination of Swords Dance, Leaf Blade, Aqua Tail and Outrage is pretty scary in-game.

I use the Pokemon I like regardless of strength, though often the stronger ones are used more often. To me it's more important that I have a variety of types in my team than for them all to be extremely strong, but if I don't particularly like a Pokemon, I tend to lose interest in training it quite quickly.

I use pokemon I like. When I got white 2 I took Tepig(which I'm not a fan of), went out and caught a Sunkern, put Tepig in the pc and never looked back.

i only use those who visually appeal to me

but as a kid i liked big bulky mons since well i was a stupid kid who liked monster being depicted as strong big and powerful

I only use pokemon that I like. If they're strong too then great, if they're not, still great.

When I make an in-game team, I prefer to try and use Pokémon I have never used before (Aside from the starter) and wouldn't want to use competitively, so more often than not, I end up using Pokémon that I know have no competitive potential. For example, in my JP White 2 I used a Scolipede and in my EN Black 2 I used an Altaria - two Pokémon I would never think of using competitively.

However, there are some Pokémon I wouldn't use because of how bad they are - which is why I didn't use my shiny Sunkern in my Black 2 team and I decided against using Azurill because of how weak it is before it evolves. Yet I'm using a Stunfisk in Black - so go figure.