Four identical databases
 

I had an idea to start a web based game, but have four instances running at once (ie w1.site.com - w4.site.com). You could have an account on each, and each would be separate (except for the forums). So w1 would have an identically laid out users table to w2 (each would have username, password, email etc), but different records.

I don't know the best and most efficient way to go about it though :D

Either having four separate databases, or having one, but with a column in each table representing the game (ie users.game_id). I'd also like to synchronise all items between them, but have separate mail, so I don't know the best way to make sure the items etc are the same, while keeping others different.

Does anybody have any experience doing something similar? I've only ever worked with one database at a time before. Thanks! :)

Any ideas?

Unless you’re concerned about your servers ability keep up with four separate games, I would personally just designed to allow for a game identifier.

That way you don't need to duplicate data unless it's called for.

For example you decide Item1 needs to be different for Game3 .. When you change the data for the item is creates a second entry with the new details with an ID for game3 ..


Same goes for user registration, you could simply make one registration but give an identifier for which games they have access to.

Or of course, I didn't understand your question in which case, disregard. But in my experience, centralized has more pluses than minuses.

I would go with 1 database with an extra column to identify the game. 4 Databases is crazy talk. Especially if they are all hosted on the same server.

Each idea has its own advantages. The biggest advantage of using different databases is if it gets really heavy/busy you could move each database to its own server, however the downside to having multiple databases is JOINs become slower and JOINs across different servers are not permitted in MySQL - unless using Federated tables but thats another story.