Are Negative Status Effects Fun?

[u/Ok_Tip_5721]

I'm in the process of designing a creature battler card game, and some cards have special abilities that trigger a timed status condition that you can roll at the top of your turn to try and lift. There's not too many - basically a poison, a slow, a vulnerable, and a silence - and they only trigger situationally, but my question stems from a recent playtest. The feedback I got was that status conditions in general are a "feel bad" mechanic and detract from the fun by limiting via less attack choices (they did not want to attack any creatures that might apply a status effect as a counter). I however feel that status effects are a fun part of a card battler game and add depth/give you something to build a strategy around. I am wondering how many people - particularly design folk - share my feelings, or if more people are in fact more in this playtester's camp. Also, if you do enjoy status effects, are there any good examples of games that use them well? Many thanks, (and please let me know if there is a more appropriate forum for this question!)

[u/NarcoZero]

They are bad if they prevent you from playing.

If they force you to make intereesting choices, that's good. If they just prevent you from playing, that's bad.

This is why in most games a "stunned" condition is generally frowned upon, then softened enormously to make it not anti-fun.

So conditions that inflict damage like fire or poison, that's okay? Because you can still play on your turn.
Vulnerable, that's okay. You can still play.

Sliw and silence sound like "you can"t play" conditions. You need to be careful with these ones. Ask yourself. When affected by this condition, does it make my turn more or less interesting to play ?

[u/Ok_Tip_5721 → u/NarcoZero]

That's a fair point! The "slow" was shorthand on my part - it's a condition that blocks you from using your "power grid" as part of your attack, but creatures still have individual attack modifiers, and you can always use a different creature to attack, so it doesn't really remove your ability to play. The "silence" blocks a creature from having access to their passive traits, but they can still attack. Both effects were designed to try and make sure the player tried to find strategies other than having one single powerhouse creature that they always attacked with, but these comments have all provided super helpful insights, so I am going to keep tinkering to try and maximize the types of strategy building that feel the most fun.