Chaos Theory: Secret World Legend’s third anniversary and the 2020 MEGAversary event

Another year has come and gone. (Though we might be glad this one’s over.) Secret World Legends, the reboot of the beloved Secret World, will turn three this week on the 26th. Usually, that means an anniversary retrospective column all about the past year, highlighting the happenings in game. For SWL, however, there really isn’t much in-game to report on for its third year of life. Only one news bit for the year involved official content for the game! The rest was peripheral news involving the studio or — in the best scenarios — the IP itself.

But lack of official content doesn’t mean that my favorite conspiracy-laden game is without things to do. The community has kept things going in SWL with home-spun events for players throughout the year. And the anniversary is no different. It’s a time of mega celebrating with a mega event: Cue MEGAversary 3, A Very MEGA Sequel! Created and sponsored by players and player organizations, this giant celebration of Secret World Legends has a number of events and contests for players to participate in. Funcom is even offering support and some prizes for the shindig. There are song and art contests, Agent raffles, a book giveaway, bike races, radio shows, and more! If you are a fan, you don’t want to miss out. And you won’t have to since we’ve got all the details below for you. It all kicks off today!

Third time isn’t a charm

If SWL’s third year were a production, I’d say we need to cut and do it over. It just was not a performance worthy of this title. The memorable moments are very few (and usually more painful for the remembering). July 2019 through June 2020 was a pretty dismal 12 months for SWL fans who desperately want more of their favorite IP. Of the three biggest chunks of news over the third year, two weren’t even directly about the game.

Arguably the biggest news of the year was Tencent’s 29% acquisition of Funcom in September 2019, which then morphed into the recommendation of a full buyout in January 2020. While there was some inkling of hope that the influx of capital would result in some much-needed additional content for Secret World Legends, that didn’t seem to materialize. The only new content for the year did happen after this acquisition, but that was just one temporary investigation mission event. The other big news was the launch of the Halloween-time launch (March 2020 for consoles) of Moons of Madness, a single-player romp through the IP on the moon. While the game is a great delve into the Secret World Universe and an inside look at the Orochi, it still doesn’t count as content for Secret World Legends. In that same vein, the new launcher for Funcom games really meant little to SWL.

As noted above, there was one bit of content added to the game. I was so excited to learn of a new investigation mission, but that excitement was quelled quite a bit by the fact that it was a temporary Valentine’s Day event. Other seasonal and holiday events returned but without additional content. Poor Samhain is still missing the glorious Seven Silences missions of TSW after finally getting The Broadcast back in 2018!

Added note: While not one of the three major news bites, another tidbit deserves a big mention. The Secret World IP had another addition to its universe when author Amber “Blodwedd Mallory” McKee released a fourth book in her series about the world created by the game. As you can see, there was more Secret World-ing happening outside of Secret World Legends than inside.

MEGAversary, the third

Now, if the community-developed MEGAversary were a production, then we say bring on season 3! This year’s event is dubbed MEGAversary 3, the very MEGA sequel. And there are a number of events already lined up (with maybe the possibility of more jumping on board as well as time goes by). You can enter contests or races for prizes, join in groups for hunting mega bosses, or listen to SWL radio shows. You can also watch many of the shenanigans on Twitch! Some events are time specific, while others contests have entry deadlines. Here’s a brief summary with links for more details. (For a full mobile friendly schedule of events, check out the official site.)

Week one: June 24th through 30th

• AnimatedAngst ARG Event — June 24th at 10:00 a.m. EDT. Solve the puzzle
• Zero Point Report — June 25th at 11:00 p.m. EDT
• MEGAversary 3 Story Night In Game RP Event — June 26th at 8:00 p.m. EDT. Come share (or just listen) to stories, poems, and more at an in-character gathering
• A Very MEGA Sequel Bike Race —  June 27th at 2:30 EDT. Race though the streets of London using Sprint 4. Be sure to study the race route map; any deviations will disqualify you from prizes!
• Shambala — June 27th starting at 8:00 a.m. EDT
• A Very MEGA Sequel radio show hosted by Happy Tentacle Radio — June 27th at 4:00 p.m. EDT
• Kill Da Wabbit Rosenbrawl event — June 29th at 11:00 a.m. EDT. For every 10 deaths of JimmyTheRabbit, a prize will be raffled off to attendees
• Blind Bad Soylent Date Contest — June 28th at 2:00 p.m. Eat the bad dates from the al Merayah house in Scorched Desert, and get to as many stacks as you can from SELF Healing only

• Mega Boss event — Daily (see calendar for all times).

Week two: July 1st through 7th

• AnimatedAngst ARG Event — July 1st at 10:00 a.m. EDT, Solve the puzzle.
• DJ Malak Radio Show — July 3rd at 7:00 p.m. through 10:00 p.m. EDT
• A Very MEGA Sequel Bike Race —  July 4th at 5:30 EDT. Race though the streets of London using Sprint 4. Be sure to study the race route map; any deviations will disqualify you from prizes!
• Fancy Dress Show with Happy Tentacle Radio — July 5th at 7:00 p.m. EDT. Prizes for the best outfits in the contest!
• Mega Boss event — Daily (see calendar for all times).

Contest entry deadline July 7th at 6:59 p.m. EDT

• Boone Agent Raffle — Enter to win a Boone Agent just by sending a forum PM or replying to the thread by the deadline.
• Andy and Nicole Duo agent Raffle — Enter to win a duo of Andy and Nicole (SWL CMs) Agents just by sending a forum PM or replying to the thread by the deadline.
• A Very MEGA Sequel Merry Melodic Mars Mashup — To enter, submit (through forum messages) a well-known song you have altered to fit in the Moons Over Madness themes (Ocochi, moon, tentacles, etc).

Contest entry deadline July 8th at 6:59 p.m. EDT

• MEGAversary 3 HolloPoint Art Raffle — Enter to win a special artwork made for MEGAversary by sending in-game mail (to name: Art Raffle) or forum message to HolloPoint.
• The Book Giveaway — Enter to win one of Amber “Blodwedd Mallory” McKee’s four ebooks (or new introductory story) by posting your character name and region on the forum post, or send a PM though the forums to HolloPoint or an in-game mail stating “Book Raffle.”

Contest entry deadline July 15th at 6:59 p.m. EDT

• A Very MEGA Sequel Art Contest — To enter, post your original SWL or Moons Over Madness art (jpeg format, under 2.9MB; animations) on official forum post.

MEGA winner drawing held on or about July 15th

• Those who place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in the other contests and events will all be placed into a special drawing to select a MEGA winner, who will receive a very special prize on top of their event winnings!

Thanking the movers and shakers

Want to take a moment to express gratitude to all those who are putting together this celebration? Tons of time and energy go into it, and we have all these players and organizations listed in the image above to thank for our big event. A hearty thanks everyone involved! Hope to see you there.