World was created by some sort of traumatic event his creator went through.
- Look at the clues we see in Destination Imagination: The place that World lives in like a magical fantasy, like a place you can go to escape the harshness of the real world, and World has a fear of abandonment, likely inherited from his creator.
- World himself also has behavior that one would find in a traumatized child. He's shown to be gentle with people he cares about, namely Frankie, but is also somewhat hyper-vigilant of her at first and tries to be super accommodating to her needs to the point of being a little unsettling (constantly asking her what she wants and giving it to her with zero hesitation), and when he is unable to convince Frankie to stay, he opts to make Frankie's reality seem less appealing. In children, this attitude of placating others to an absurdly strong degree is often a result of kids being terrified of making someone angry and being harmed as a result.
- When Frankie is insulted by everyone's lack of gratitude, World is infuriated at the others for upsetting her to the point of knocking them out and in-prisoning them. While this could just be seen as an extension of his protectiveness over her, it could also be a case of him perceiving the group's ungratefulness as something far worse because of his own past.
- He also becomes angry and horrified at real and perceived abandonment, and seems quite bad with confrontation, with his breakdown after Herriman yells at him being more akin to a panic attack. When he's no longer isolated and is let out of the box, he seems much more calm and accommodating, signaling that with some love and understanding he can move past his worse tendencies.
- World's specific wording during his Villainous Breakdown is also interesting. His spiel against Herriman consists of very telling phrases, such as "You're not the boss of me!" and "You can't tell me what to do!" These both sound very much like the words of an angry and traumatized child lashing out against an adult they think means to do them harm. It's also probably not a coincidence that he says this to Herriman of all people, who, aside from being the one to push World's Berserk Button, very much acts like a no-nonsense parent a lot of the time anyways. Perhaps Herriman's insults brought back some painful memories for World.
- Perhaps his original creator (the child we see at the beginning of the movie) was in a very traumatic situation (such as abuse by a relative who is not his parents, or some other trauma that made him isolate himself) and created World as an emotional crutch to deal with his situation. Eventually, possibly after therapy or support from his parents, the kid no longer needed World to cope, but World, who was made for the explicit purpose of reflecting his trauma, became more of a danger and a crutch than a security blanket, possibly even isolating the kid from his own family and friends, and the parents locked him up in the box to protect their kid.
