In the 1999 film The Matrix , most of the people are real, but their brains are fed a constant stream of virtual reality that forms their world. The real world is a decaying trash heap outside of virtual reality. Yet once people discover that they are living in an artificial world, it becomes meaningless and they want the real world with all of its warts. The difference is in the consequences. Virtual reality has no consequences.
Relationships have consequences.
In the 1999 movie The Thirteenth Floor , it is the people in virtual reality who are not real. Computer simulations of people turn out to be created by people who are themselves computer simulations of people. Both simulations discover that they are not real, and the result is chaos - a breakdown of the moral fiber that holds society together. Murder is a meaningless event. Life is meaningless.