Hi Rogue, Thank you for your pre-order and kind words!
As far as being informed about the release, I'm not sure if Shrapnel has a mailing list they send out to previous customers. I don't think so.
E-mail me if you want updates on my stuff from now on, along with my blatherings (I still send things out occasionally to some previous loyal customers when I was a little indie to let them know i'm up to). My e-mail address on this forum works fine.
To answer your questions: Yes, warriors can get into "trouble" outside the arena, like personal difficulties (determined partially by their Intangibles rating, which basically determines things like "heart", grit and how "nice" they are as a person). Think: Mike Tyson or the current Kobe Bryant situation, if you've heard about that.
More severe offenses (this feature was just added and started testing today) can result in a warrior being suspended for awhile or you being fined an amount of gold, so it will make you consider whether your warrior is a jerk or not along with their actual skills in the equation.
And yes, the game will support unlimited consecutive seasons with the same roster (though there may be some turnover of warriors over time for various reasons). But there's no built-in hardcoded "limit" on seasons, like some of the EA games.