So, what is worldbuilding anyway?
The term has been used for about two centuries, perhaps originally among scholars who would use the term to refer to the imagining of hypothetical worlds with different universal laws in physics or otherwise. Nowadays, you will most likely encounter the term in critiques on science fiction or fantasy stories. Some worlds are elaborated in great detail, such as the invention of languages. Oftentimes worlds are developed through a unique combination of fictional tropes.
Regardless of the approach, worldbuilding is what happens when an imaginary world is developed. Worldbuilding can be used to enrich the stories found in books, films, games, or even social media posts with character limits.
So, what is good worldbuilding, then?
There are many ways to answer this question, and a meaningful answer couldn't be explored in one blog post alone. I do intend to make a series out of this question.
One way to find "good" worldbuilding is by looking for published stories that generate a high rating from both audiences and critics. But ratings just mean that the story was noticed in the first place. Good worldbuilding can in fact also occur without these ratings.
It also depends on what we mean by "good". Some stories may be popular, and may have been created through a well-designed universe, but could actually be promoting harmful values to its audience. To be clear, we are actually referring to worldbuilding itself, not the stories through which we experience worlds, and therefore we could technically have good worldbuilding occurring in a not-so-good story.
Back to the question: what is worldbuilding?
Worldbuilding can be simply defined as the process of imagining the world of a story. Worldbuilding occurs through the storytelling medium.