Great piece by @constancegrady on why we can no longer look at Ready Player One (the book) as merely a harmless pop culture romp. https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/3/26/17148350/ready-player-one-book-backlash-controversy-gamergate-explained …
I think Constance's piece engages with this fairly. It's understandable to me that many of us didn't quite see the harm in the ideology of RPO (and media like it) until GooberGorp happened, so its reception as a fun pop culture romp by many critics makes sense to me.