In my experience, world design is not a linear process. In fact, Karinth's design has been a highly iterative non-sequential onion-building over the course of many years.
There are many highly regarded authorities on the subject who have published books that many find good guideposts - Richard Bartle, Jessica Mulligan, Chris Crawford and Andrew Rollings are four authors whose books I keep within arms' reach. Some tend to deal in the hypothetical and stratospheric; others are almost step-by-step advisories - no one condition is going to be all that is needed at any given juncture.
For the patient, ground zero begins with a backstory and theme and spirals outward, becoming more visible and tangible as the design matures - for the impatient, it's often more rewarding to reverse-engineer a beloved game, second guessing what the author has used as his design guideline.
The temptation is there for the new designer to pay homage to a beloved game by following in its footsteps. This is also known as plagiarism. Don't do it. If you're a creative sort, no other game will truly fulfill your game vision anyway, and you should focus your talents on your own originality. If you're not a creative sort, you may find yourself mired in a constant muck of frustration and micromanagement.
More later... dinner calls via cat whispers.
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