Matrix Rip-Off?

[judge_mel]

Let us not forget the Doctor Who serial 'The Deadly Assassin' in 1976 where the Doctor spends time battling enemies in a virtual reality environment called 'The Matrix'.

[Ghost of Harrenhal]

There's a book I read a while back in school called Off The Road. I can't remember much about it except that the world in which the main character came from, a clinical and conservative world with many strict laws and such, was just a way for the people on the outside of that world, living in rural areas and small farming communities, to keep them controlled and out of the way.

[Quokka]

There's also a lot of similarities between The Matrix and PK Dick's The Maze of Death (1970).

*spoiler*

The whole twist of The Maze of Death is the use of a virtual reality world in order to keep people distracted. In this case a crew that is stuck on a space ship with almost no hope of rescue and so they continually subject themselves to the alternate reality in order to distract themselves and stop or delay anti-social/violent behaviour. I can't remember for sure but I think once they enter the world they no longer realise it isn't 'real'.