[6] David Dockterman, VP and Chief Academic Officer of Tom Snyder Productions, commented "the series grew out of my frustration teaching high school history during the Iranian hostage crisis.
[11] Realwordedtech suggested the series died out because it "was expensive to create and even more difficult for teachers to integrate an increasingly prescribed data-driven curriculum".
[4] Students discuss the problem in teams, then enter their strategies into the computer, which advances the story, leading to 300 alternate paths.
[14] The games encourage a five step critical thinking process:[15] Follow-up activities include: taking quizzes, drawing political cartoons, writing to state and federal legislators, seeing how others parts of the country voted on the issue, and research Web links.
[3] Character Education in America's Blue Ribbon Schools felt the series effectively allowed students to work together in solving real world problems and analysing the results of their decisions.
[26] The Washington Post reported that the series could be ground-breaking in the move from learning distinct subjects to a synergistic approach, using all these skills to complete practical and realistic projects.