Breaking News: In game calendar system revealed
by Adam Holisky 
Jul 29th 2008 at 12:43AM
Elizabeth Harper managed to get onto the latest beta build of Wrath of the Lich King tonight and snap us a few screenshots of the new calendar system. It looks quite nice, and to me appears to be a step up from current in game calendar options.Blizzard has mentioned that they've been working on one of these for a while, and it's nice to see the results. If you look closely you'll see things like when the Darkmoon Faire is coming, and when the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravagenza is happening. It doesn't show what PvP weekend it is, but I have to believe that's something they'll be working on.
Check out the screenshots below for the new UI. I'm sure you'll be happy!
Update 12:57 a.m.: There is a way to add user events in the calendar. It also appears there is a way to share the calender items among individuals. More information incoming.
Filed under: Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Joshua Jul 29th 2008 12:58AM
I wonder if this will be anything like the addons GEM or GroupCalendar
OutlandishTrendz Jul 29th 2008 1:08AM
So long GroupCalender and GEM.
Wonder if it will track profession cooldowns as well.
xzor Jul 29th 2008 1:06AM
meh, doesnt group calendar already do all of this, probably better? yet another example of blizz ripping off and add on from the community. at least it will help a calendar system become more ubiquitous.
SpaceDog Jul 29th 2008 4:52AM
Gah, I hate when people say this.
Mods are written *for* WoW, it makes sense for popular addons to become part of the main UI. It's one of the reasons why WoW is successful.
I don't know why people get all self-righteous about it.
I mean, God forbid Blizz actually add something people might use...
Jordrah Jul 29th 2008 10:35AM
i dunno about addon designers, but if i were one, i think having my addon be basically accepted by blizz and added to the default ui would be kind of an honor or at least i wouldnt get angry about it. it would just mean that i was so awsome that so many people were using my addon that blizz thought they should just supply it by default.
but thats just me personally.
dave Oct 14th 2008 11:51PM
When Blizzard incorporates the features of an add-on into the core, I'd consider this a great compliment. It's also a credit to the architecture and community that 3rd-party add-ons (or their capabilities, anyway) are conceived, developed, improved upon in the open, so they can eventually be incorporated.
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So in this case, someone outside Blizz perceived a gap, and set about to solve it. Blizz eventually took notice and is working to close the gap in their core solution.
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There are probably still some gaps, and will continue to be for some time, between the functionality Blizz offers and what the add-on community does.
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But when that gap closes (partially or completely), the add-on developers can focus on other problems, and help us (the users and Blizz!) make the overall solution better.
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Bravo, GroupCalendar! Bravo, Blizz!
PimpyMicPimp Jul 29th 2008 1:10AM
I hope this works well. I'm so sick of Group Calander version issues.
G Jul 29th 2008 1:12AM
Fingers crossed that the data will be made available via the Armory, maybe even interactively so one can join/drop an event from work, on the road, etc.
For a game which requires us to schedule our real lives with those of other people to accomplish many things, it's about time!
Narlic Jul 29th 2008 1:43AM
oh my god, could you imagine if this had an iCal export hook via the Armory?
G Jul 29th 2008 1:56AM
I can indeed.
Hell, anything to get the data into the real world would rock. Now that Blizzard are handling the data themselves, and not subject to the limits of addons, it's possible. I hope they have this in mind even if we don't get it all at first.
OutlandishTrendz Jul 29th 2008 1:23AM
Also I hope this is more of a success than the in-game voice chat.
Zakk Jul 29th 2008 1:49AM
Oh, sweet! I thought it was just gonna be a Group Calendar replacement (which I would like a lot -- default Blizz stuff is nice just because it's guaranteed to always work after a patch), but adding the Blizzard events to it will be great. I check the event calendar on worldofwarcraft.com pretty often.
Darkharmony Jul 29th 2008 1:56AM
I know they're gonna have "shared" events but I hope they have "guild events" that everyone in the guild can see without actually having to share it with everyone.
k Jul 29th 2008 2:06AM
It would be nice if the screenshots weren't so damn small :(
BoneyD Jul 29th 2008 2:39AM
If you're using Firefox, right click on the screenshots and select 'View Image' to see them full size. The page is just resizing them down to fit.
IE7 seems to require you to save it to disk...
Adam Holisky Jul 29th 2008 2:51AM
Hi K,
if you click on the screenshots you can see bigger versions. Also while on the image, click "Hi-Res" to see a larger resolution version.
Best,
Adam.
Wigs Jul 29th 2008 2:21AM
It'd be nice if they had the scheduled Tuesday maintenance in the calendar as well.
Doffencrag Jul 29th 2008 7:20AM
THIS makes sense to me.
Tenchan Jul 29th 2008 2:31AM
I'm amazed no one mentioned it yet, but ... is that an AutoInvite-like function I see there in one shot? Automatically (or manually) inviting everyone who has the same event? If implemented well, that would be awesome.
Bran Jul 29th 2008 4:39AM
Looks good. As a guild officer who runs our website, and have an online signup system, then I am intrigued. There are lots of possibilities/options.
> Exporting the data in some form should be child's play, hopefully. So an online mod to "sync" a guild website with ingame current signups should be possible. But getting anyone who signs up via a website system back into the game is going to be more tricky.
> Armory is an option, or allowing you to sign up via the account management.... but many people at work have firewalls and bar access to official wow pages.
> It isn't clear how signups work, and how that synergises with guilds, and guild alliances. Do you invite people to signup (is that what the mass signup button is for?), and then they accept. How does it handle informing the organiser about current specs? How will it work for guild alliances? Will it replace the LFG/LFM functionality in some way?
A nice step forward, but still lots of questions.