A Brief Point on Gaming Preferences

So someone (and not even a usual someone) asked me a couple days ago if I preferred exploration or adventure in roleplaying. Now, that question alone is pretty limiting. Two options? Still, I thought about it and answered something like:

"Adventure. I suppose exploring - seeing neat places and such - feels too non-interactive to me. However neat and pretty a setting/area may be, if there isn't stuff going on there isn't much to do other than to say 'okay, I go on to the next place.'"

Of course, a good scene/campaign could (and perhaps should) include both to some degree, along with other aspects as well. Exploration can add a sense of novelty and interest, but that's very rarely enough to carry the day itself in my book. Adventure... could, depending on the particular implementation of it, though pushing plot continuously can get problematic itself. What else? Action? That has its place. Characters can be a huge element in garnering my interest - both independently and how they interact with one another. That's something that can be very different in RP versus a presented story, as players will usually see great depth to their own characters, but not necessarily others'.

I still balk some at the mere thought of trying to GM for someone with a heavy exploration bias because that's one of the aspects of a story that's least interesting to me...