Since it looks as though voice acting is here to stay, what real world accents do you like/not like to see in Tamriel? I realize the poll options are extremely generalised, but I didn't want to go too far the other way and have loads of options. The main accents used in Oblivion seemed to be English and American.

Personally, I am most fond of the British accents (maybe I'm biased, since I'm from London.) I just consider accents such as American and Australian to be too "New World"-ish and I associate them with the modern world. I don't know if anyone has played "The Witcher," but the accents used in that game are primarily British (including Yorkshire, Welsh, and Scottish) with some continental European as well, and I felt it really worked well.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter

Sorry if I haven't included any accents you feel I should have done, just let me know and I'll add them to the list.

EDIT: Added an 'other' option.

Whatever was done in MW was great for every race. Everyone sounded like their own race, and it was good. No orcs sounding like nords, all the mer sounding like each other, and no beastmen with the same voice.

I agree.

I just hope they use more than one voice-actor per race, it is sort of unnerving knowing that all the people of one race have the exact same vocal cords with rare exceptions.

Lots of accents actually. Unless overdone. TES3 had it fine, like mentioned already,

One thing though: if you're still stealing words and names from Norse mythology, FFS have the voice actors learn how to pronounce them.

Haha! Too true. This is the reason I hope TES:V really will be set in Skyrim. Those Nords need fleshing out.

On topic: I'm all for British accents, since that really is where typical fantasy genres (which TES is one of) were born. Before Tolkein, Elves were tiny mischievous folk who lived under toadstools, and orcs didn't exist at all - Tolkein invented them, and every other fantasy author without a decent imagination stole them. I also think the comments about TES:III have a lot of worth. Dunmer for example had coarse voices which perfectly suited their environment and the feel of the game. In Oblivion, they sound like spoiled whiny brats. So accents done well (as in, not directly stolen from a real-world country) could be a great addition, and could really add some more uniqueness to this fantasy world.

British if not U.S. American.

Whatever fits the race. Like I said earlier, MW had it mostly perfect for each race.
Imperials: Commanding, yet very diplomatic and charismatic
Bretons: More high pitched than imperials, and more arrogant.
Redguards: Could be a tad deeper. They are a warrior race, and very proud. That needs to be reflected in their voice.
Nords: Loud, booming, and norse-like.
Orcs: Brutal, but not too harsh. They also have the best cough in the world.
Altmer: Their accent commands that they're better than you, and the world is to know it.
Dunmer: Harsh, and enduring. Their voice reflects their very land
Bosmer: Needs to be more wild and less of a joke.
Khajiit: They sound cat-like
Argonians: Lizard like

Because of my views, limiting it to just those accents is short-sighted and not very imaginative, especially when everyone is clamoring for english/european-accents.

Well, I was giving examples from the actual voice actors there are to choose from... this isn't necessarily a thread about how the races should be portrayed, although I'm happy for it to go in that direction, but about what actors you'd like to see employed. To take the quote "Imperials: Commanding, yet very diplomatic and charismatic" as an example, Bethesda aren't going to invent a whole new accent - in Oblivion and Morrowind Imperials had an American accent, yet the traits you described could just as easily be portrayed in a different accent.

I'd prefer minimal voice acting.
Morrowind style where each race has it's own accent. (not real world accents)

Yeah I agree, I think the accents should represent the personality of the in-game race and not reflect any real-world race. Some will sound similar, of course, but that shouldn't be the aim.

Multiple accents (some real, some modified from real accents) to represent the various cultures of Tamriel.

Certainly don't want just English accents. They may sound exotic to you but round here they're two a penny. Each race should have at least 4 voice actors, 2 per six, so that not every Imperial male sounds the same.

If the Dwemer ever (god forbid) reappear they should not have Scottish accents. I'm sick of dwarves with Scottish accents in games and films.

Exotic? I live in London... but I agree that each race should have more than one actor, and there definately shouldn't be two races with the same actors.

I'd rather see npc's have voice acting based on their role in society so......

Nobles & knights - Snobbish arrogant voice.

Fighters - Proud with a bit of cursing here and there.

Beggers - Depressed and pity voice.

Mages - Calm and smooth voice.

Workers and Farmers and Inn Costumers- A bit of hard voice from all the work and ale!

Thieves - Sound like they don't trust anyone.

Guards - Just like they did in Oblivion.


Imma post this in Suggestion thread.

American, African, and Russian are my fav accents.

I have to agree on that. Every character of the same race having the exact same voice might have worked in Morrowind because you only had to listen to it in generic greetings and combat taunts. But if Bethesda is going to keep using fully voiced dialog (Which I am almost 100% certain they will.) they need a bit more variety. Obviously, I know there's no way they can give EVERY character a unique voice, even games where there is a fairly small cast of named characters still tend to give generic nameless people a few generic voices, but they can at least do better than Oblivion, maybe if they'd spend their voice acting budget on hiring a few more voice actors for characters who you'll be speaking to throughout the game instead of getting famous actors to voice characters who are going to die less than 30 minutes into the game...

But Morrowind seemed to have the right general feel for each race. But as far as real world accepts goes, it's important to remember that Tamriel ISN'T the real world, so it won't necessarily have the same accents as real life, the characters in the game probably aren't even really speaking English, it's just rendered as such so players can understand it, and since the voice actors probably will have a hard time doing fictional accents without sounding forced, they can instead go with real life accents that fit the characters. Rendering the "standard" accept (Which presumably would be what Imperials usually speak with.) as American sounds alright to me, as Bethesda is an American company, and would presumably aim to appeal to American audiences first if they had to target one country over any other, an American accept would be most familiar to American audiences, so it would seem to make sense that the accent that is meant to be the "standard" be rendered as an American accent. With that in mind, characters from other races could perhaps speak with an accent based off whatever real life culture they're inspired by, though I think it would be better to just go with whatever sounds "right" for them, because just because a fictional race has some aspects resembling a real life culture doesn't mean their accept must be the same.

Being English I suppose I'm going to be biased but I prefer hearing English or perhaps Scandinavian and eastern European accents in fantasy games. It's really jarring to hear Elves and Orcs with North American accents, it just doesn't feel right.

I like what they did with the voice acting in Morrowind though, they took more care to make the characters sound 'mysterious'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYltef5VTyQ

I kinda like the accent of S'hrathra. Basically same as khajiits in TES3, even if they speak ye common tongue.

I'm Scottish and the accents that they usually give dwarves (though plenty of characters in TES games have Scottish accents) are unintentionally hilarious here. It's not really a genuine Scottish accent, it's more like Willie from the Simpsons.

Different races should have different accents. E.G. Imperials should have British accents, Nords should have Scandanavian accents, etc...

Brittish accents sound noble, sofisticated, and charming. Thus, IMO, that accent would work best with Altmer or Bretons. Imperials should have an accent that sounds powerful, demanding, but also charismatic.

Accents are not the vocal factor that decide whether a person sounds charismatic, weak, inept, confident etc. That's determined by the tone and pacing of the voice, as well as body language. Christopher Walken has an awesome voice, but not all Americans with his accent have that same flair.

Also, I really hope they don't stereotype races as much in future TES games. Orcs all sound dumb, Altmer all sound pretentious, Wood Elves all sound... like the game's comedy factor... Fallout 3 had a lot of character variety in its NPCs though, and i'm sure Bethesda will carry that over. TES games have the potential to be a lot smarter than the average game in cultural terms.

:thumbsup:

Especially Brummies and Scousers.