I don't need an admin panel, I can write queries easily enough via phpMyAdminReally now?
If you can keep that many one to many relationships in your head then your by far a greater code then I.. Oh wait you don't know what a one to many relationship is, well then stop all your coding and pick up a mySQL book and start reading.
As a new game creator your full of piss and vinegar and you think you don't need an admin panel
What if something you created errored via syntax or game logic wise? How many times are you willing to to write
UPDATE player SET money = money - 100 WHERE name = 'joebob'
Writing an admin panel is paramount to getting a successful game off the ground. This allows you the admin / creator to fix things very quickly and thus make your player's happy. Even if you start small with just a player edit function at least it's something. If your database is designed properly then you HAVE to have an admin panel to keep track of all the relationships for editing, adding and removing items.
True Story...
So I started BordelloBattles and it was going good. One eve I added a new feature, uploaded it, waited an hour or so and no reports had been posted about it being busted. Went to bed woke up the next morning and my inbox was FULL of messages because an error was corrupting accounts.. Since I just got up I started writing queries like a mad man hit execute and whala.. screwed up the accounts even more so then when I started.. Was at this point where I finally sat down and start writing generic form handlers and such so I could make admin panels quickly and easily.. Lesson learned.
Another, for instance, what if you need to go on vacation and can't be there to fix account problems and such? Are you going to give someone else raw DB access via phpMyAdmin or another type of front end? Don't limit your yourself by not creating an admin panel, the time you take writing one will save that time and probably 10 times more by not only you using it but others you may want to help you run the game.
