I think from their perspective, all they saw was a video game, they didn’t know that it involved intricate role-playing and community.
WoW came out in 2004. What came before in a similar genre? Maybe Diablo II in 2000-2001. And while the Guild Halls were planned for D2 they never actually shipped. There were forums etc but nothing like the scale and possibility of WoW. There were no patterns for this before.
This is a very common misconception, really. Yes, there are no new ideas. The fact that LG Prada sported a capacitive touch is only relevant for mansplaining. rewind.ai predates Microsoft Recall but who cares, really? The chances of an abusive spouse discovering it and using it to oppress further a woman is nil while Recall will be right in front of their eyes. AirTag was not the first stalking device but for sure it was the first to reach mass enough adaptation to get multiple women murdered. The list is endless.
EditAdd: And it's not strange. First, Mats had his own apartment, it wasn't like he was playing where his parents were walking past all the time. And secondly, every time he logged on to WoW he would spend the first 30 minutes running. So if anyone watched him when he started playing the would simply see a figure on a monitor running on a road, and keep running, and that was all.