Virtual World - in Fiction

In Fiction

The concept of a virtual world has become a popular fictional motif and setting in recent years, although science-fiction writers have been portraying similar ideas (for example, cyberspace) for decades. Among the most prominent virtual worlds in the literature are the ones written about by William Gibson. The first was probably John M. Ford's 1980 novel, Web of Angels. Virtual worlds were prominent in such movies and books as Tron, Neuromancer, The Lawnmower Man, The Lawnmower Man 2, Epic, Snow Crash, .Hack//Sign, Real Drive, Summer Wars, The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell. There are many other examples of the virtual world; for example Lyoko in the French animated television series Code Lyoko.

Series 4 of the smash hit New Zealand TV series, The Tribe featured the birth of Reality Space and the Virtual World that was created by Ram, the computer genius leader of The Techno's.

In 2009, BBC Radio 7 commissioned Planet B, set in a virtual world in which a man searches for his girlfriend, believed to be dead, but in fact still alive within the world, called "Planet B". The series is the currently the biggest ever commission for an original drama series.