Right, I don't think characters are a requirement, but story is. I agree with your film theory sort of division between plot and story. Yes, exploration is definitely part of the story, which is what I tried to say somewhere in my big article.
I apologize for the use of Tetris, but it's hard to come with examples that everyone knows. I guess the best example I can think of is The Incredible Machine, where you had an inventory of objects that you had to use to solve a puzzle. That's a game that has puzzles very similar to the ones in most adventure games... except it has no story and its representational aspects are no more relevant than, say, chess pieces resembling characters from the middle ages.
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