Mac App Store disappointment

Been using the App Store with my IPads and IPhones for years...love it. When I bought my new IMac I was under the impression that I could purchase most of what I wanted on the Mac App Store. Not the case. After 6 months I find the Mac store is no where near what I have experienced before. The quality of many of the apps is downright awful...they seem to be there mainly to take up space. Very poor selection and very seldom do I perform a search that anything useful comes up. Older titles like for instance ChessMaster and Tiger Woods Golf are non existent. Being an Apple fanatic I have always coped with the fact that Mac Software is much harder to find than Windows software...but that's just the nature of the beast. This would be no problem now if only the App store offered a decent selection of new and classic titles. I'm getting a new Windows 8 machine for Christmas. Since I can buy Windows software everywhere I fear that my Mac might get much less use.

You are not limited to purchasing apps from the MAS.

There are a lot of Mac developers that have not put their apps in the MAS for one reason or another.

Think the MAS is light on apps - just wait and try to get all the apps you want and only look at the Windows app store...

I have never yet started an app search at the MAS when looking for a new app.

Google is still the place to search for apps - then when you find the one you want, you get it online or from the MAS depending on where the individual developer has it for sale. Would guess the vast majority of the apps on my Mac do not come from the MAS.

Let me put it another way. The ONLY way (legally) to get apps onto the iPhone or iPad is through the iOS App Store. That means that developers have to submit the apps to the store, wait for Apple approval and get sales. In addition, Apple takes 30% of the sale to facilitate the entire thing..

As the only show in town, obviously the iOS store is going to have more content.

The Mac App Store (MAS), on the other hand, doesn't play by the same rules. Apple has made is available as a convenience for developers to peddle their apps but is not a requirement.

A lot of established developers are not going to want to hand over the 30% stake or be at the whim of Apple's marketing of their apps. They do all that on their own and take in 100% of the app sale..

Beyond just the money involved, going into the MAS means you have to conform to specific restrictions in your API use and be approved for sale. On the iOS front, that's the price you pay to play. On the Mac front, you don't have to follow. Don't conform, don't sell on the MAS.

So, there are a lot of developers whov've gladly adopted the MAS and stopped selling the apps from their own sites, whereas many have resisted and will continue..

As bobtomay said, nothing limits you to the MAS. If you limit yourself to it, you're voluntarily cutting down the number of apps available to you. Indeed, there's even a small number of developers who actively refuse to publish in the MAS.

A very small number of developers.

What specific titles are you looking for that aren't on the MAS? Your opening post described a completely different "Mac App Store" than the one I use -- to the point that I think you may be confusing Bodega or the Mac Game Store with the Mac App Store or something.