The experience of playing Mao is just the opposite: you start off as a foreigner, with no understanding of what's going on, and you accumulate large numbers of cards. Gradually you start to understand, become part of the group. In the end you're able to turn the system to your own ends (or, equivalently, you are captured by the system), becoming one of the ruling class yourself.
(I understand it's partly an allegory for the authoritarian Chinese regime: the rules are pointless, everyone knows they're pointless, but as you engage with the system you start to have an interest in the rules being followed, and in the end you use the rules to enhance your own status at the expense of naïve newcomers).
(I understand it's partly an allegory for the authoritarian Chinese regime: the rules are pointless, everyone knows they're pointless, but as you engage with the system you start to have an interest in the rules being followed, and in the end you use the rules to enhance your own status at the expense of naïve newcomers).