... especially in science-fiction games 
 
As a citizen of a nation (Germany) which is usally depicted as a Nazi or Mad Scientist, or a combination of both, I always wonder where we have gone in Science fiction games. It makes sense, that we do not show up in present day games as much. Many games are about killing stuff, and thankfully Germany is nowadays a (relatively) peaceful country, mostly know for the soccer world cup 2006, Bratwurst and the Oktoberfest (yes, these are GB-links, go figure). 
 
Ok. Take Mass Effect for example. This is set in 2183. The german language and culture has been around, in some form, for well over 1000 years. Considering the recent trend in german population growth (hint: it is negative!) and given my lack of success with the fairer sex, it might as well be that there are no Germans around any more in 200 years ;) 
 
But I do not want to make this a Germany-thing. Where are the other nationalities? (Again we are talking about SciFi here.)  It is hard to believe, that they just would disband their cultural heritage and language. Also I think it is perfectly reasonable that English will continue to be the lingua franca of humanity. Mostly because it is not very hard to learn. So it is save to assume that in most games the characters will communicate in English, while being raised with a different mother tongue. Cetainly in the rather near future games like ME. Even if they would speak a common galactic language to communicate with aliens, I guess everyone will have an accent. While this is not made transparent to the player, one could mimic it with just giving them a regular accent in English. What I am saying is: A future Italian will speak Klingon wiht an italian accent and not an english one. (A am aware of the existence of a universal translator in Star Trek, but just work with me here.)
 
I am a grad student, and have been among non-native english speakers for around 10 years. These people speak it at a relatively high level, or at least talk about rather difficult stuff - well they are scientists, and you can understand them perfectly well for the most part. First there is a distinct lack of characters with "pure" different national background, and second, if they are present they do not transport this very much due to a english native-speaker voice actor. 
  
I realize that many games are developed in North America, but in science fiction, only showing North Americans and Brits, seems strange. Sometimes they throw in the occasional Russian or Chinese character, but without any accent. I guess many games will sell better with a American protagonist. But at least, why do not give a nod to other countries as well. (I only can think of Tomas Sevchenko - the main protagonist of Killzone 2, but also he has no accent.)

Talking about ME again. Actually I have to give this game credit for Kaidan. But the reason for this blog post, was my knowledge that Miranda Lawson's face was modeled after Yvonne Strahovski, which is of polish descent. Why not go all the way and make Miranda a polish woman? Do developers thing they added enough diversity with the aliens. I meet a couple of young polish women over the last years, and I find their accent quite charming. I admit that the overall loveliness of those ladies, might have added to my impression. 
 
So please give us some diverse characters with really diverse voice-actors as well. It is not like they have to do the writing. No, Americans with xyz decent, who can't even really speak there ancestral language. Just ring up some foreign theater schools, and I bet you find a lot of people who have an excellent command of the english language and get the accent just right. 

PS: Sorry, for any mistakes.