Current British accents are just as modern as most American accents.

The only time "American" accents sound out of place is when they do not match the area. Having a Jarl and everyone in his court speak with some sort of accent only to have his children sound like some snotty west coast kids is very distracting.

My biggest immersion breaker is, by far, the air. They didn't even bother with textures. Very lazy.

It annoys me when I'm watching a movie/playing a game about ancient Greece or ancient Rome and everyone is speaking in British accents!

Come on, WTF. Even the American actors use fake British accents.

You people don't understand game design then if you think such American accents belong in such games. These sorts of games are based on real history of our world and America has only been around 250 years, they don't belong in such games. I think it's just the Hollywood mentality and ignorance for not getting voice actors other than their own location. Bethesda are an American game developer, so what? Making games is about convincing the people who play it that it's real and using modern American accents is a flaw of American thinking.

So where are the Australian accents then? They wouldn't fit at all but no one uses them.

REALLY!?!? We have to nitpick at the frikkin accents killing immersion...FFS!!! :facepalm:

These accents have not been around for a long time. The current English accent is just as modern as the current American accent. If you went back a few hundred years you wouldn't even understand the accented English of the time.

I'm just glad they didn't have the whole Americans doing British accents that all fantasy movies seem to require.

My biggest problem with voice acting is many of them, in any game, end up sounding like they're reading it off a cue card. Nothing worse than when two characters are talking and one is supposed to interrupt the other, but there's always that lag between them. Just doesn't sound natural.

I rather like the voice acting. When I first saw the opening scene on a Let's Play, I thought, "wow, that General guy sounds just like Col. Tigh." So, I looked it up, and sure enough! General Tullius is voice-acted by Michael Hogan, the same actor that played Col. Tigh on Battlestar Galactica. Also found out a few of my other favorite actors are in the game (especially Claudia Christian).

The notion that characters in a fantasy world should sound British is a throw-back to mostly old, and usually rather bad, movies. It's a notion that needs to die in a fire.

Personally I'm not offended by American accents in Fantasy based games. The only time I was offended by an American was when I first watched Mary Poppins and first heard dike Van Dyke's 'cockney' accent (I'm from South London, not 'technically a 'Cockney' as you have to be born within the sound of the Bells of Bow Church) but the accent is the same), but I was impressed with Johnny Depp's accent in From Hell.

I like the accents of Skyrim, the arnie one makes me chuckle

This! x10.

No, as long as they don't use modern English words then it's fine. Dwarfs in The Witcher 2 and films like Lord of The Rings sound authentic because they're classed as an old race. I think you missed the point that Elder Scrolls is based a long time back in history, hence why American accents don't fit because Americans where not around then.

On this planet, if dragons did exist, then no. But Skyrim isn't on Earth is it? It's on Tamriel, so yes, you're being Nitpicky.

And as for McDonalds? Your comment was completley ridiculous but I could go for a cheeseburger right now... I wonder if they'd be so kind as to cook me one made from Mammoth Snout... Ooops sorry, wrong planet...

Once again, for those who are a bit slower on the uptake.... Skyrim lore is entirely its own. It is not based on Earth history. Saying that American accents don't belong in a fantasy game about dragons is like me saying that British accents don't belong in a movie about dentists.

I don't mind it.

In fact, I don't see any problem with it.

Besides, Elder Scrolls takes place on Nirn, not earth. There's no such thing as "it doesn't belong".

Actually no, Elder Scrolls is not based a long time back in history. It's based in the year 201 of the 4th Era. Which is the current time.

The accents in this game are weird. Were they trying to invent accents or something? I'd rather they just use obvious real life ones - like british and german and french and chinese. I don't see american accents as being some kind of show stopper though.

lol it's not 'that x10' - it's not even that times 1...

The fact it is not set on Earth is irrelevant if they are speaking English at us!

We have unshakable preconceptions about what certain accents represent; which is why Aragorn wasn't speaking with a west country accent in Lord of the Rings, but some of the Hobbits were (for example). And it is undeniable that America is still very young, and as such her accents sound out of place in medieval based fantasy.

How do you knwo they're not Canadian accents? After all, the accent in particular the OP is speaking about is flat North America northeast. Apart from a few words for regional accents most Canadians and Americans in the northern states all sound pretty much the same. In fact, I'm a Canuck that often gets asked if I'm American when I speak and I have no idea why, so go figure.

For the most part like the voice acting in the game. Most are great.

I can understand where the OP is coming from though. I too found several(not all) of the 'American' or maybe 'North American' (they could be a type of Canadian one) accents just out of place and some what jarring when I first heard them. Whether as some have commented it that it shouldn't be that way and due to some sort of cultural conditioning of what fantasy voices should sound like doesn't matter. Some still seem out of place. It's a very small, small 'ugh moment' for me though with the entirety of the voices in the game. There was one companion possibility, can't remember which one, that has one of those voices and I didn't choose him because of it and I grin a bear the court wizards voice/accent in Whiterun when I have to talk to him (that voice just seems so wrong to me) but all in all that's a very tiny part of the game.

Well, children often do speak differently than their parents. That's how accents evolve and change. But it is a bit jarring in that context.


There is no excuse for giving Ancient Greeks English accents. Greek is still a language that hasn't changed all that drastically through its history. They should have Greek accents.
But seeing as no one still speaks Latin, it's kind of impossible to give Romans authentic accents. Why make them sound British? Americans view the accent as cultured and dignified, and generally view Romans similarly.





Has anyone else wondered what happens to these accents when the game(Skyrim) gets dubbed in other languages? In the French dub, do all the Nords speak French, but with a Scandanavian accent? or do they use various French accents or dialects instead?

Too bad for you.

I'm a Canadian and thus a subject of H.M. and also a huge Anglophile. That being said, N.American accents in TES games don't bother me at all, I think they "feel" just as right as if it were totally done with European or British voice overs.

It's based on a time when people used to live in stone, wooden houses and used anvils for making and weapons. You may want to look at what time that was in real history because Elder Scrolls was and is based on this era of history.