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Update 1
Pokemon games have similar openings. They follow a specific pattern.
The region's professor tells you the basics of the Pokemon world.
Funfact: Juniper is a type of tree. Oak, Elm, Birch, Rowan- the professor's are named after trees.
To punctuate her explanation, she tosses the Pokeball in her hand to reveal a Minccino.
There are a lot of Pokemon, and though we know a lot about them, there's still much more to learn. Hence why she and others study Pokemon. We live and interact with Pokemon in many ways, including sharing work and friendly fighting competitions.
And now we introduce ourselves:
The main character's gender doesn't have too much impact. I'm sticking with the boy.
Next is name:
Ahh, I've had my coffee and now I feel great!
The player character's name is up to 7 spaces long. I don't know why such an awkward number.
"Hilbert" is as close to an official name as he has so I'll go with it.
And now our "rivals", childhood friends who are also going on a Pokemon journey:
Cheren's blunt, straightforward, but honest and smart.
Bianca's whimisical and not as serious as she should be, but she's cheery and earnest.
Pokemon White, unlike previous games, has a half-decent story to it. Sure the overarching plot is "collect eight badges, beat bad guy team, win championship" but it finally has devices like character development and moral ambiguity. Finding what's important is one of the major themes of the story.
And it begins, with Juniper delivering three Pokemon to the trio of friends...
Per usual, Hilbert is a silent protagonist. Actions speak louder than words, they say.
Cheren wonders where Bianca is...
Only for her to wonder in shortly later. They agree Hilbert should get the first pick, given the present was delivered to his house.
"Starters" - A name for Pokemon selected at the beginning of the game. They're found nowhere else, so the selection here is important! It also determines what the rivals get.
For White, the three starters are...
Snivy, a very snide grass snake with emphasis on speed and defense.
Tepig, an adorable little fire-snorting pig with a focus on offense.
Oshawott, a sad-looking water otter with a slight focus on offense but mostly balanced stats.
I'm leaving the final choice up to voting, but for the sake of this update I'll be using Oshawott for now.
Water, Fire, and Grass form a triangle of sorts, like Rock-Paper-Scissors. Water douses Fire, Fire burns Grass, and Grass... drinks Water. To that end, Cheren always picks the one that beats yours and Bianca picks the one that yours beats. This relationship doesn't exert itself just yet, but it's something worth considering.
Of course, what else is there to do with adorable new critters than to make 'em fight?
LIsten to the Rival Battle theme. It's great. White went all out with great music everywhere.
Pokemon Trainers, both the player and NPCs, can have up to 6 Pokemon. At this point, both sides only have one.
The menu, situated on the touch screen, has more options than we need right now. Bag accesses the items, but currently we don't have any to use. Run would let us escape, but there's no running from trainer battles. Pokemon allows switch the active Pokemon, but it cannot be used yet as we have only Oshawott right now. The only thing left is to Fight!
Like I said, a focus on offense but mostly balanced. Oshawott has two moves:
Tackle is a basic, boring physical attack with high PP (number of times the move can be used) and perfect accuracy (% chance of hitting, a move that 'misses' does nothing) but mediocre power. As a physical move, it deals damage based on Attack mitigated by Defense.
Tackle's been buffed from previous Pokemon games, where it had 95% accuracy that could backfire at the worst possible moments.
Tail Whip doesn't deal damage, but it temporarily lowers the opponent's defense stat. I don't use it much.
The battle opens with Bianca's Tepig hitting our Oshawott with Tackle.
A side note, the HP gauge decreasing is simultaneous with the Pokemon blinking after getting hit. White plays a lot faster than older games.
Oshawott retorts with its own Tackle.
Important NPC trainers have in-battle lines after the first hit.
The Tackle-off takes a devious turn when Oshawott gets smacked by a Critical Hit! Critical hits deal double the damage, and this early in the game I'm mostly screwed.
But then, a miracle happens. Bianca proceeds to use Tail Whip twice in a row, lowering Oshawott's defense.
She never gets the chance to capitalize on it as that was the break I needed to win this battle!
EXP is rewarded after a knockout, and the amount received depends on the levels of the Pokemon, the species KO'd, and if the Pokemon was owned by a trainer. 43 is nearly enough for a level, as indicated by the bar below HP nearly being full.
With her one Pokemon defeated, Bianca has lost the battle. 
Defeating trainers earns money, for buying goods from stores.
Holy shit Bianca how did we destroy my room. 
No kidding. How did footprints get on the walls?!
Bianca insists Cheren fights too. Cheren agrees because otherwise it wouldn't be any fun!
Cheren has the same music as before.
He's also sporting a fairly nice tie. Good for you, Cheren.
His Snivy acts first, due to its higher speed. Speed determines who acts first, and is absolute: the higher speed always goes first, regardless of the gap. 10 always moves before 9. If speed is equal, it switches who goes first every turn.
The tackle-off might go in my favor.
Of course, Cheren decides to be like his best friend and do something incomprehensible.
He does nothing but use Leer for the rest of the battle, giving Oshawott more than enough time to Tackle it down.
Leer is functionally identical to Tail Whip, differing in only in description. Why Cheren thought using it over and over again was the best plan is beyond me.
With Snivy's defeat, Oshawott gains enough EXP to reach level 6!!
Levels bring increases to stats. Though level 6 doesn't bring much, levels add up in the long run.
"Strange" blunder? Despite losing Cheren is still happy he's finally a trainer.
Anyway, downstairs the trio apologizes to Hilbert's mom for the mess, but she's okay with it because the new trainers had fun. Cheren heads to Juniper's lab, and Bianca stops at home before going there.
And mom gives us a funny gadget.
The X-transceiver is a portable videophone, more or less.
Birds fly in the breeze-
The gentle winter sun shines-
A peaceful morning.
Well all of that is shattered by Bianca having an argument with her dad, who doesn't want her going on a dangerous journey across Unova with all of a piglet for self-defense.
She runs off anyway.
At the lab, Juniper, full of pomp and circumstance, formally introduces herself and her field of study: the origins of Pokemon. She wants us to take our new Pokemon and explore the world.
She noticed Oshawott already thinks I'm a cool dude because of the battles we had. Then she gives us the greatest opportunity in the world:
Nicknaming our starter!
Nicknames are ten characters long, and besides letters and numbers and punctuation, can have these strange characters.
An aside, this Oshawott is a female. A Pokemon's gender is usually random, and Oshawotts have only a 1/8 chance of being female.
Anyway, there are two related votes here: Which starter and the starter's name. Whichever starter is selected is a permanent member of the team and will exclude other Pokemon of its type from future participation. For example, picking Snivy means that Snivy is staying on the team for good and I won't use any other Grass types. If the nickname is specific to the starter, such as Piglit for a Tepig, please specify such.
Next time: making more friends at Route 1!