Blizzard Calendar vs Group Calendar
by Eliah Hecht 
Nov 6th 2008 at 9:00AM
Why? Well, mostly it comes down to features. Both the Blizzard calendar and GroupCalendar support the basics -- raid lockouts, holidays, player-created events with attendance lists. But like most things Blizzard, their calendar is fairly simple, and more or less ends there. GroupCalendar goes a bit farther.
- Durations and level ranges can be specified
- Finer-grained control over invitations; for instance, you can specify a minimum and maximum quota for each class, with a standby list if you're full on (say) Hunters
- Automatic invites and queuing when it's time for the raid
- Edit: People can be allowed to sign up to an event even if they weren't explicitly invited (this is not the case on Blizzard's calendar, and theirs only allows you to invite up to 100 people)
Don't think this is an advertisement for GroupCalendar, though. If you don't need the extra features, there's no reason to install it. Blizzard's calendar is more lightweight, already built-in, and much more polished (as you'd expect). There are no synch issues, and no bugs (that I've seen). In fact, the only thing missing from the built-in calendar that I really want is for it to show the daily dungeons and battleground. But if you do want the extra features that GroupCalendar offers, the developers have shown no sign of slowing down; you can get it wherever fine add-ons are hosted.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
M Nov 6th 2008 9:10AM
I've had to remove the big "calendar" button from the minimap when I installed my minimap mod (Squeenix) because it was just unsightly.
Group Calendar has a FuBar mod written for it .. does anyone know if a FuBar mod has been written for the native calendar yet? I would rather see the information on FuBar and click something there than type /calendar to access it :(
h8rain Nov 6th 2008 9:17AM
I really like the built in calendar, but I wish the invitees could have the option to select maybe or standby. I do believe the inviter can set a player as such. It just seemed like an oversight on Blizzard's part. I currently have pre-Wrath apathy, so I am like "if I am on, and you need me, sure I will go". Fix that, and the built in one will be a lot more useful in my opinion.
William Nov 6th 2008 9:20AM
I used Group Calendar before the Blizz one was put in. Most common issue I had with GC was that it didn't always synch up like it was supposed to and occasionally someone would ask my why I hadn't signed up for something and it wasn't even listed on my GC. In GC's defense, I'm in 4-6 guilds across 6 servers so perhaps keeping track of that all is a little bit much. :D
Rihlsul Nov 6th 2008 9:25AM
Um, Eliah... the big issue our guild has with the built in calendar? Blizzard's calendar system requires you to INVITE each and every person you might want to go. GC publishes the events and allows people to sign up. Unless 3.0.3 changed that, that is the biggest of all the differentiators. *Please* retouch your article to acknowledge the difference.
Rihlsul Nov 6th 2008 9:48AM
Thanks dude! =)
As a bonus, here's a link to the giant thread on Suggestions for Blizzard to try to improve it, as we all have great hope for it.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=11228504125&sid=1
jaenicoll Nov 7th 2008 7:41AM
I totally agree with this.
The current system is more how guilds manage their private raid invites rather than the more common form of creating a raid wide notice and allowing people to sign up if they can.
It is a huge pain to have to invite everyone rather than just make it an event that the whole guild can see in the calender.
ielinye Nov 6th 2008 9:31AM
our biggest beef with the in-game calendar is that you can only invite 100 people to a specified raid/event. so, as with our guild, we have around 200 people across a multitude of accounts, with each main having multiple lvl 70, raid capable alts. with that said, our main problem is that you have to be very picky as to who you invite per each event... that's probably the biggest downfall of the in-game calendar and that's why we chose to use the addon.
Gimmlette Nov 6th 2008 9:45AM
Word. I don't have 200+ members but when it's an all-guild event, such as the Hallow's Eve event we had, not every toon got an invite. And we've discovered that if an event is for 70's, such as a Kara run, and a toon reaches 70 AFTER the event has been posted or joins the guild after an event has been posted, it doesn't show up on their calendar.
We used to use Group Calendar but I have people with an aversion to add-ons so this calendar feature has been very, very helpful. I still encourage and strongly recommend people go to the guild web site, but I quit using Group Calendar with this add-on. As with the game, it's a work in progress so I expect to see more functionality down the road.
Chanticrow Nov 6th 2008 9:34AM
Agreed with Rihlsul. My guild is in an alliance of guilds that team up for raiding. GC let's us share the calendar entries between guilds automatically so anyone in the guilds may sign up or not as they choose. In game calendar requires every single person be invited individually.
The in game calendar is entirely unsuited to our needs until it allows easier invites and cross guild functionality.
Fletch Nov 6th 2008 9:35AM
Several of the guilds my characters are in used group calendar, though I can't say I'm to sorry to see it go. There used to be a lot of issues with it where various people couldn't see events. Saying that, I still think the built in calendar could do with some work.
vanye111 Nov 6th 2008 9:55AM
Our guild's biggest problem was the inability to specify your role in a raid. Not a problem for people running pure dps classes, but when you've got people running pally's who regularly switch between Ret & Prot, or druids who respec from Feral(Tank) to Feral(DPS) or Resto, it's a little frustrating.
patrick Nov 6th 2008 9:45AM
Ielinye hit the nail on the head. If your guild has more than 100 people the calendar is useless. We have 270 people, most at 70 and run 3-4 senior and 5-6 beginner raids a week. We tried it once and most of us didn't get the invites.
How hard would it be for Blizzard to make the invite maximum 1000? I'm sure it wouldn't use up too many resources.
superfrank Nov 6th 2008 11:16AM
10x as many perhaps! or more, or less
Nzete Nov 6th 2008 9:49AM
Our guild tried the new built in calendar, and we have gone back to group calendar already. We have a large number of low level characters in a guild that is not huge, and so most of the 70s run low dungeons on alts. It is very difficult to schedule things when people who are not invited (and alts who are not invited) cannot see all of the guild events.
Mater Nov 6th 2008 9:50AM
My guild uses the Blizzard calender now. The overall look is much better but Ii'm a type of person that likes to autorun or fly while I'm checking my map, sorting my bags or cheking the calender to set up events. My only real problem is it takeup to much screen space and I can't move it the window because it's locked in place.
SarahTheGnome Nov 6th 2008 9:52AM
My main concern is the fact that you can only invite a 100 people. I am in an RP guild and we have one event every week, but we have around 150 members. Of course there are a lot of alts present, so we just not invite the alts. The problem with this is, that many players, especially now, are focussing on their alts and not their mains, thus not always spotting the invite.
The other issue with the max number is, that we can not invite other guilds to our RP events, because we can only invite a 100 people. There are a lot of features that can be improved, but since the calendar is still new, I am patient and have high hopes for improvement.
Stariann Nov 6th 2008 10:03AM
We had a guild alliance with another raiding guild and we utilized group calendar. I created an alt in their guild and would add our guilds members for raid events. This worked rather well. I enjoy the invitation features of group calendar.
Rob Wynne Nov 6th 2008 10:05AM
There are two HUGE flaws in Blizzard's calendar that render about as useful as the built-in voice chat, in my opinion.
1) You can't see things you might want to know about when you're on an alt. If my guild leader posts an event for 70s, and I'm playing my level 32 mage, I won't know there's a pending event until I log in my 70.
2) You cannot say "Maybe" to an event. You can only say yes or no.
These aren't nitpicks. These are, to me, crippling flaws.
Alkahn Nov 6th 2008 12:40PM
I was on my warrior and someone posted an event I wanted to go to my priest on, and I just alt-tabbed, hit the armory, and signed up. Never had to log over or leave game to do it.
Pretty easy way to workaround, imo, though I'd prefer if you could invite people by account and they could sign up who they wanted from the UI without logging over.
hENNIFER pANTALON Nov 6th 2008 10:06AM
take it to the thread! There is a link to the wow suggestion forum, and I think we should all take our feature requests/gripes there, just remember to keep it civil, and understand that with Wrath just around the corner, there WILL be other priorities ;) but if they could do this just after they implement Dual Spec, I will have to change my underpanties from the mess of my joy.