Commercial Video Games as Playable Spatial Models in Urban Geography Education: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Case Study

Commercial video games represent cities through navigable images, maps, and rule systems, but evidence remains limited on how geography teaching can turn these representations into subject-specific model critique. This article reports a multiphase exploratory mixed-methods case study in one upper-secondary geography course in Germany. A preparatory think-aloud analysis with five geography teachers and geography -education experts informed a six-lesson sequence using Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Discovery Tour and SimCity BuildIt. Classroom evidence comprised matched self-assessment items and criterion-scored open pre-/post-test tasks (n = 16), classroom artefacts, and one recorded student reflection. Mean criterion scores increased from 11.63 to 15.78 out of 70; gains clustered in tasks requiring model application, comparison, adaptation, and critique, while absolute achievement remained low, formal definitions did not improve, and individual trajectories were heterogeneous. The design cannot isolate a game effect, validate a causal mechanism, or establish retention. Instead, the integrated evidence is consistent with a tentative representation–action–reflection conjecture: game representations may support recognition, mechanics can make selected model assumptions actionable, and structured comparison and debriefing can make those assumptions available for critique. This study conceptualizes commercial games as playable spatial models and proposes seven empirically informed, testable design principles for geography teaching and future design-based research.