The reason American accents are seen as out of place for fantasy and that sort of genre is because 'fantasy' almost always has a core foundation in European or Asian mediaeval periods.
As America is in neither of those locations, and has no such history of the sort, I think that's why people probably have a psychological block on it seeming out of place.
I do also need to agree on the current Dark Elves being definitely NOT a real British accent. British accents put on by Americans usually sound very similar and have a few tells. The most significant or common of these I think is words like grass. It ALWAYS (from 'cockney' to 'posh') comes out as "gress", and no accent in the UK makes such a pronunciation.
Oim sittin on the gress oi wuz.
*shudder*
I also read the really interesting BBC article someone linked on British accents in fantasy, and found their comments on the Game of Thrones very interesting indeed. I very much like that such a mainstream programme/show has such diverse accents. For the US guys of you on this forum, if you want to here some true sampling of UK accents, then watch an episode or two.
I did have a good suspicion that Tyrion wasnt English. His accent sounds odd, but is a really good attempt, and way better than most. Although he's probably had some excellent practice with the cast he's surrounded by.
As for the Morrowind Dark Elves, I too loved that voice. But you really couldnt apply it to every male Dark Elf now like they did in Morrowind, or it would seem poor (not that Bethesda ever has a good number of actors anyway. You need to hire more Beth!!!).
And as awesome as the Morrowind Dark Elf was, can you imagine trying to find other people to do that voice, and do it well? You couldnt just have one Dark Elf like that, it'd sound really out of place. It's either a racial thing or it's not, and I can imagine that the decision to just retcon it a little with new actors doing regular voices was easier than getting all the actors to do their best impression of the Morrowind one
As for Brynjolf. Someone went crazy a few posts back saying it was the worst thing ever etc, worst Irish accent and all that.
I'd just like to point out that he is doing a Scottish accent,and it's one of the best I'v heard in a game. Either he is actually Scottish, or has some Scottish family, or it's just an excellent accent.
If you want a really terrible example of a Scottish accent, then look at Shrek or any of those male Disney fairies (yeah my daughter watches it, so I have to as well lol).