[mcv]

How is it "completely disconnected from reality" if a third of the games in your random sample fit the description?

Admittedly "occult" is a bit vague. Does it refer to everything with a fantasy or supernatural theme? Then it's undeniable that it's a popular theme for games. Fantasy, magic, horror, superheroes; there's plenty there that sparks the imagination of gamers and game designers, and if that's a theme someone dislikes or objects to, then that's a pretty big chunk they're losing out on.

Still, there are indeed a lot of games that don't touch on any of those topics at all. Shop around a bit, look into different kind of games.

Or use BBG's advanced search[0] to filter out all the themes you don't like[1]. (In this search, I filtered out everything fantasy, horror, religious or mythological.)

[0] https://boardgamegeek.com/advsearch/boardgame [1] https://boardgamegeek.com/search/boardgame?sort=rank&advsear...