Stories and Games Take Place in Worlds
The concept of "world" is the reality of a fictional situation: the "world" of Star Wars or the Lord of the Rings is more than the setting of a story: it becomes a thing unto itself that users understand, and that sows the seeds of imagination.
A quick observation on action figures from a movie: when children play with them, they do not recreate scenes from the film, but instead invent their own stories, using their impressions of the "world" created by that movie, and demonstrate that they have a good grasp of the world the author intended and the ability to imagine and create scenarios that are plausible by the rules of that world.
The concept of world is media-independent, as is shown when a story crosses media: a comic book becomes a movie becomes a video game. Ideally, the "world" remains the same, and one of the chief complaints of avid fans are when the world changes in some significant way.
If you can create a "world," it is a very compelling thing that leads to developing an avid fan base, having a product that can cross media, and having a product that will endure over time.
Some qualities of worlds:
- They generally start in a single medium, and are "rooted" there even when they jump channels (e.g., the star trek books and games are not as popular as the TV series, which is the standard to which others are compared)
- Worlds are intuitive: based on the details provided by the creator, the audience is able to intuit (figure out, or make up) the missing details
- They are generally the product of one individual. While there can be a team of people working on aspects of a world, is the product of a sole individual, who maintains creative control.
- The "world" facilitates many stories - there can be multiple characters and plots within the world.
- The "world" is consistent across all stories, ad across all media
- The "world" is generally better than the "real" world in some way
- The "world" is necessary to the story (not just a gimmick for a story that could be based in any other world)
It's also worth noting that a world must be accessible, at least at first. There are instances where a project fails because knowledge of the "world" was prerequisite to a given project (the movie makes no sense unless you read the comic book, the sequel makes no sense unless you saw the first movie, etc.), and balancing the amount of exposition in order to ease newcomers into a world without boring the existing fan base can be tricky.