title: PHP: How bad of an idea is it to store shared user data in MySQL as a JSON string?
body: <p>I am working on a simple multiplayer game that may have 2 to 6 people in a game at a time. The game is only slightly more complex than Five-Card Draw poker so it isn't very resource intensive.</p>
  
  <p>In order to make the development fast and easy I am thinking about having a table like this: (simplified)</p>
  
  <pre><code>games
      id (int) primary-key auto-inc &gt; unique id
      data (text) &gt; for storing a JSON string
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Here is what I'm thinking for the process:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>AJAX post includes <code>game_id</code> field</li>
  <li>Do some permissions checking and validation</li>
  <li>I fetch the entry from <strong><code>games</code></strong> with the <code>id</code> equal to <code>game_id</code></li>
  <li>json_decode the <code>data</code> field</li>
  <li>More permissions and validation stuff</li>
  <li>If changes to the game data are made: json_encode the new data and update the DB</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>Question</strong>: What pitfalls may I encounter doing this?</p>