Hacking the good life: João de Barros & the game of moral virtues

Abstract

"The Diálogo [...] em modo de jogo is an early-modern book on Aristotle's Ethics, written by João de Barros in 1540.¹ It includes a board game which is meant to help players memorise virtues and vices, as well as learn new things from it. Barros created this game using schemes and interactive visualisations, adding playfulness so that it would be fun as a pastime for the young. The Diálogo can be divided into three parts: a) Moral Theory: Barros writes about the meaning of the Tree of Virtues; b) the Game: Barros describes all parts of the game (the boards, the spinner, the pieces and the players) and how they interact; and c) the Rules of the Game. The central mechanics of the game imply that knowledge comes through practice by creating habits and triggering adequate emotional responses. Moves are calculated using the randomly obtained interaction between three boards and a spinner. The game's aim is to reach "Human Happiness" with as many points as possible. This project was built to tackle the game's theoretical and mechanical complexity, performing hands-on testing of the game's playability, decoding the author's intentions and translating them into an organised dataset that can be critically analysed and reinterpreted."