I found that book to be dreadful and couldn't make it through. The initial worldbuilding was interesting but then it seemed to turn into an endless loop of "HEY DO YOU REMEMBER THIS THING FROM THE 80'S WASN'T IT AWESOME?".
About halfway through, I also felt it took a direct shift into 'teen romance' as if the publisher had read the draft thus far and said 'y'know, with xyz added this would make a great film for the 12-15 yr old audience!'
Going in, I was hoping it was to be a homage to things I loved growing up, but what I ended up with was a pile of teen-fict no better than Twilight.
I am a little bit bitter about RP1, can you tell?
Right now I'm reading Kim Stanley Robinsion's '2312'. It's very similar to some of the Culture novels - indeed I picked it up after feeling the loss of no more Iain M Banks books coming... If you like Culturesque stuff, I can totally recommend it.
If it was about a topic or era where 90% of the references meant nothing to me, I don't think I'd have liked it either.
Personally I loved it even though I was never a hardcore gamer in that vein and I know others in the same boat. But I certainly get your criticism.