I'd be interested in knowing who enjoys this game, and why. I'm not being negative, I like the game a lot, but I'm genuinely curious about the composition of its fanbase and what they find appealing about it.
I like retro RPGs in general, I love management aspects and choices & consequences (which many games advertise but few get right) and I like well written 18+ stories that aren't all-out erotica.
When I'm not gaming I'm usually reading harem gamelit books like the ones from Michael-Scott Earle, Daniel Schinhofen, etc (who in my opinion are proof that you can write sexy stories for men that can compete with the writing of a Sanderson or a Rothfuss). According to goodreads I read almost 200 full lenth novels last year, and all but a small handful were indie fantasy and scifi with harem elements. Sierra Lee also writes novels, but sadly they're very PG. I enjoyed a few of her books, but they don't have a lot of real appeal to me either because if it's PG I might as well go back to reading Sanderson. I think she'd do great at writing a novel closer to TLS in genre, but of course she's free to do what she wants to do.
The choices & consequences are interesting as well. Which countries thrive, which countries get ruined, how do you lead your armies, but also how you personally use your powers regarding a few companions. The Gatherings and other big diplomatic chapters are just great, the investments are a pretty interesting choice as well though those are more prone to optimisation while at the diplomatic summits there's usually more trade-offs that you need to consider. The one thing I could give as criticism is that there's almost for every choice a clear "best" option (esp regarding investments), but even so the only games I can immediately think of that do C&C better than TLS would be the Fallout 2 and Age of Decadence (which regardless of the name sadly isn't a porn game).
Regarding the 18+ content in the game, no, I don't think the game would be as good if it did away with all that. It's too tightly interwoven into the plot. It definitely should remain a "porn game". That said I don't think the graphic sex scenes and CG art really add much to the game either. I'm not complaining about them, they look nice ... but the writing is good enough to stand on its own so to me the graphic sex is optional at best for this game. Unlike a lot of other games on the site who would completely fail if they were judged on their writing alone.
