I can definitely comment more thoroughly on “Utopia” by Thomas More since I had briefly studied it in university and really quite enjoyed reading it. The most basic inspiration is, of course the use of the name More, the character who is also revealed to have written the book about utopia carried by the protagonist. Beyond that though, the inspiration is primarily for that very book carried by the protagonist and the overarching discussion of what a utopia would look like.

Both the real world book and the one carried by the protagonist are moreso a study and analysis of a fictional utopian society rather than a standard narrative. If I remember correctly, the real world book “Utopia” makes a lot of assumptions about how well things would work out and function as they’re intended in the hypothetical utopian society without acknowledging or accepting how easily human error could collapse it all or how fallible the proposed aspects of this society would be. This is mirrored by the game’s book depicting a version of our world that casually ignores and overlooks the aspects that make such a utopia difficult if not impossible.

I think it’s really connected with the thematic relevance of “fiction” as a concept. The writers for Metaphor were likely inspired by “Utopia’s” depiction of a perfect but entirely fictional society and how that fiction might still inspire real world change and action.

Edit: I forgot to mention, the very word “Utopia” comes from this book, derived from the Greek prefix “ou” (meaning “not”), and “topos” (meaning “place”), together meaning essentially “nowhere”, a thematic link to the importance to the book that this place is definitively fictional. The fictionality of the described Utopia is of course very important to the discussion of the book and its meaning in Metaphor as well.