It's simple marketing to generate sales. American accents are in games as this is the biggest market for most of them and thus it makes this market (people in the US) feel more at home and so sells more from that market.

It bothers me not to be honest. Just as long as no one ever says "Well met!" to me ever again I'll die a happy man...

There's nothing wrong with challenging preconceptions, especially preconceptions that are based on nothing but tradition like "anything fantasy should be done with British accents." Bethesda has already challenged some preconceptions by not making their dwarves short drunken bearded folk with scottish accents.

Black Country??? There were no black country accents in any of the LOTR movies... My wife is from the Black Country, she doesn't sound nothing like any of the Hobbits...

Have you even any idea what you are on about?

It's based on it's own universe.

No, it really isn't. It may appear that way, as certain things like architecture have been borrowed from those time periods for the sake of appearance, but pay attention:

The Elder Scrolls games do not take place on Earth. Earth history and culture do not apply.

This. For all we know, In that "Universe", this is what's currently going on.

Just like in the Star Wars "Universe", their Tech is Thousands of years ahead of ours, but it's set in our past.

Your argument is invalid as this is a FANTASY game. The characters speak however the storyteller wants. If you do not like it, turn voice off in options and enable subtitles and read aloud.

It fantasy in some ways but it's mostly based on real history, legend and myths of our world in a particular era. The American accents are based on ignorance of the developers and doesn't change the fact that they would still use the same accents if it was a real world game based in 10AD.

Its their game and theres no freaken point in using Scandinavian or Scottish accents, they can do as they please because its their world, it doesn't have to conform to our thoughts about how realistic it is.

I mean you dont usually see mammoths walking down your street, thus the whole field is open to Bethesda and thats how they like it.

Maybe YOU have unshakeable preconceptions about what certain accents represent. I don't. I find it perfectly simple to begin associating a particular voice to a particular character, regardless of what it sounds like.

I can't find a link right now, but I believe it was a BBC program that claimed "American" (generic) accents are closer to what was actually spoken in southern England at the time of colonization and modern British Isles English arose out of "the great vowel shift" in the 15th-18th centuries. In other words "American" English would have sounded as unaccented, normal , everyday English to a 17th century arrival from southern England where most of the original colonists came from. So much for being a very young dialect or accent, it had been around for a very long time, close to medieval even, if not quite the speech of Chaucer.

No, no, and no again.

While the Elder Scrolls series MAY be linked to our existance in a MINOR way, that has no basis of relevance to history or current existance. This is a story about a completely different existance alltogether. As stated previously, if you do not like it, you have the option to turn it off. This is a story.

You have no ground to stand on with your "ignorance of the developers" arguemnt as you clearly have no idea what you are talking about in that matter.

I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I became the governer of california.

Being from Sweden I still prefer American and British accents. I hate Swedish and other European (non-English) accents. Easrtern European can be somewhat nice but the Russian female in Skyrim is laughably bad.

I'm alright with the accents in Skyrim, although the guard's german accent kinda bothers me.. but well it's not too big of deal.

I meant west country lol. But even so, Tolkien himself was inspired by places from his own life - and that is where the black country thing comes from.

But my example was to prove my point, and it works equally well with black or west country accents. You seem to have overlooked every part of my post except that one word, but the fact remains we have preconceptions about what certain accents mean - which in turn has repercussions for the 'feel' of certain characters in a work of fiction.

(A similar example would be why Darth Maul wasn't voiced by Ray Park in the newer Star Wars..)

According to linguists modern American English is closer to 17th century English than modern English is. Not that either is very close. Medeval English wouldn't be intelligible to any of us,
No modern accent is going to be historically accurate if the idea of being historically accurate made any sense in a fantasy game which obviously it doesn't. Personally I'm fed up of Scottish dwarves and elves or nobles with upper-class English accents in fantasy games.

And if you don't like parts of the game you can turn them off too. it's just a shame that people like you cannot come up with a proper discussion about how authentic a game should be with out trying to speak out of context. I said I didn't think America accents sound authentic, not don't like American accent or voices in this game. Maybe you should learn to read?

Maybe you should quit moaning.

It's not an Earth medieval based fantasy. It's a fantasy based RPG based on another planet in it's own time period.

You and some other people may have unshakeable preconceptions but that doesn't change what TES is all about. This is not LOTR. LOTR is not the defintion of fantasy that rules all others.

So really how authentic can we make elves? what accent should they use?

Oh wait none, because they don't actually exist, the developers are using the only approach they can and that is fine for me because it is their world that they are creating, not recreating medieval earth.

In fact if we really want to be true here, if we compare the opposite way that Bethesda has chosen to run this world (Magic is now science and religion is now fact), then frankly the world of Mundus is far beyond us in the grand stream of things, they can ruin the space time continuum (dragon break).

Now that is all happily irrelevant however.

You are missing the point entirely... there is NO authenticity. The entire world is fictional. It has no recorded past, it is whatever the storyteller wants. You cannot comment on how authenic a voice is if there is NOTHING to compare authenticity to.

I hope you understand, I cannot explain any better than that.

@OP

Don't worry when you turn 12 it will all make sense:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaget%27s_theory_of_cognitive_development

Just in case, specific reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaget%27s_theory_of_cognitive_development#Concrete_operational_stage

Which character(s) have a New York accent? I haven't noticed it yet but I will be on the lookout.

Sir, you are delusional.

The point is - the accent in the game and many other games besides simply comes down to the most elementary of marketing techniques. American accents are in games as this continent is the biggest market for most of them in regards to sales generated. If it were to have English accents then the US (rightly or wrongly) and other markets would simply not buy the game in the numbers they do. Most people are used to this now too, so to change this old formula would be calamitous for sales of the game and for the company. They're far from being ignorant - it's simple common sense.

Of course it may not feel right to you and many others but they've got the bases covered I'm afraid.