In The Distant Future (Rise Of The Wireheads)

The Microsoft-IBM corporation finally commercializes their virtual reality system, releasing it for both the PC and their latest console, the Xbox 2880.

Avid gamers from rich countries start using virtual reality for the entirety of their day, only getting off it to HyperREM™ and take their meal pills and hydration capsules.

Indie developers start making different programs and campaigns for lifelike experiences.

With character customization, no death, modifiable AI responses and quicksave systems, those in the virtual realities can become Gods if they so choose.

Within a year, the price of the software/hardware drops significantly, opening it up to many people across the world.

Labor force participation rate drops significantly as people start quitting their jobs and switching on the machines.

Thanks to the post-Obama social democratic tax hikes, unemployed workers can enjoy their fully government-subsidized existence.

Microsoft-IBM realizes people are using HyperREM™ in addition to their virtual reality, so they acquire its parent company and offer REM-mode at set times during the day for people to sleep while plugged in.

MIT scientists develop a suit which allows for a steady-rate injection of meal supplements and liquids into the bloodstream, along with a catheter and excrement removal system, meant for hospital patients.

Microsoft-IBM purchases the suit rights from them and offers it as an add-on for virtual reality.

Thousands, then millions of people, decide to switch to the virtual reality system full-time, who are called "Dreamers" or "Wireheads".

The upper marginal tax rate approaches 99% temporarily as more and more people quit the labor force.
The pissed-off rich develop a low-cost housing system for Dreamers, expecting their entire savings in exchange for a spot at these gigantic underground factories in the middle of nowhere.

Thousands of robot slaves maintain the society until its collapse.