Best advice i would give you is to read the House of Burgesses. And that is just 50% of all the drama going on.
Works like this, if you are going for it alone the odds are against you. The longer you play the higher the chances that eventually someone will kill you and trash everything you worked for.
If you join a group, depends how powerful the group is and what are their relations to the other power players. The same applies here, the longer you play the higher the chances that eventually someone will kill you and trash everything you worked for, but it will give you some more time then playing solo.
The number one "killer" is boredom of course.
If you don't want to feel the losses, make a zillion alts, it is the secret to immortality.
With all this said, if you understand how the game works, and most importantly politics, it is the best game out there (and we all played a few)