Firstly I am dividing this review into two parts. Beginning with a content review/summary followed by a review of my results from putting the products teachings into practice. Hopefully this will give enough time for the techniques to sink in before I can really comment on its usefulness. So without further ado:
The Conversation King Review Part 1 Instantly i noticed the typical slick design of Daygame.com, the graphic design I always find to be very unique to the website. The videos were shot in HD and I encountered no problems streaming the video once I had receiving my login details almost immediatley after purchase. A downloadable version would have been appreciated but I understand the potential threat of piracy.
Getting stuck into the content, I watched the whole thing through and revisited a couple of bits I was hazy about, and I would recommend making brief notes on the title of each segment so you can specifically remember the methods involved in each one. I was impressed by Tom's ability to remain engaging throughout the duration of the product, as someone speaking at you for great lengths of time can get repetitive. However, this was regularly broken up with effective use of the whiteboard, and also the segments make it easy to take short breaks and do something else for a while for those of you with a small attention span
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The techniques themselves seemed (I haven't tried them out yet; coming in part 2) interesting, and certainly make sense within the context of daygame. This was demonstrated by Tom using previously taught concepts such as the conversation safety net as reference points for his teaching. Due to its link to other areas of daygame it may seem daunting to a newbie, however I can assure you that this product is not strictly irrelevant to everything but daygame. These skills certainly appear to be applicable in any social environment in which conversation is involved. As well as having some old concepts like the whole statement/question thing, I was also intrigued by some of the brand new ideas Tom brought to the table such as "parroting" and the "stealth questions" and am excited to test them out. In summary, I feel that despite being a short product in comparison to the daygame Blueprint, it contains something for everyone to take away and add to their daygame arsenal.
My only criticism of the product was the way in which the conversations were demonstrated towards the end. Whilst the glamorous dancer Emma was a great stand-in girl for Tom to demo on it seemed a little too staged. I felt that it would have been far better for the two of them to have sat down and analysed some infield footage where we could see authentic conversation and ways in which Tom would deal with genuine problems that came up in conversations infield. To combat this I ended up looking over the footage posted on the blog recently and i was able to pick up on some of the areas Tom mentions, however if the analysis were being done by the man himself, I feel it would be far more beneficial.
Overall, this is a great product from Tom and the daygame team. It is nice to see the company making products in response to its users, something i've yet to witness elsewhere in "the community". I loved the "playing card" themed structure and I would recommend this product to a daygamer of any age or ability. It is a very small price to pay for a excellent skillset, and whilst the lack on infield footage continues to haunt me, I can safely say that I thoroughly enjoyed "The Conversation King".
(part 2 coming soon)
- The Daygame Cafe Management
