An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes

risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environ ...

y. Adventures may be activities with danger such as

traveling Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel ca ...

exploring Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some expectation of discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organisms capable of directed locomotion and the abilit ...

skydiving Parachuting and skydiving are methods of descending from a high point in an atmosphere to the ground or ocean surface with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or multiple parachutes. For hu ...

mountain climbing Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become mounta ...

scuba diving Scuba diving is a Diving mode, mode of underwater diving whereby divers use Scuba set, breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface breathing gas supply, and therefore has a limited but variable endurance. The word ''scub ...

river rafting A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it run ...

, or other extreme sports. Adventures are often undertaken to create psychological arousal or in order to achieve a greater goal, such as the pursuit of knowledge that can only be obtained by such activities.

Motivation

Adventurous experiences create psychological arousal, which can be interpreted as negative (e.g. fear) or positive (e.g. flow (psychology), flow). For some people, adventure becomes a major pursuit in and of itself. According to adventurer André Malraux, in his ''Man's Fate'' (1933), "If a man is not ready to risk his life, where is his dignity?" Similarly, Helen Keller stated that "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." Outdoor adventurous activities are typically undertaken for the purposes of recreation or wikt:excitement, excitement: examples are adventure racing and Adventure travel, adventure tourism. Adventurous activities can also lead to gains in knowledge, such as those undertaken by explorers and pioneersthe British adventurer Jason Lewis (adventurer), Jason Lewis, for example, uses adventures to draw global sustainability lessons from living within finite environmental constraints on expeditions to share with schoolchildren. Adventure education intentionally uses challenging experiences for learning. Author Jon Levy (behaviorist), Jon Levy suggests that an experience should meet several criteria to be considered an adventure: # Be remarkable—that is, worth talking about # Involve adversity or perceived risk # Bring about personal growth.

Mythology and fiction

Some of the oldest and most widespread stories in the world are stories of adventure, such as Homer's ''The Odyssey, Odyssey''. The knight errant was the form the "adventure seeker" character took in the Late Middle Ages. adventure novel, Adventure fiction exhibits these "protagonist on adventurous journey" characteristics, as do many popular feature Adventure film, films, such as ''Star Wars (film), Star Wars'' and ''Raiders of the Lost Ark''. Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and other comic book publishers often use "adventurer"—or, in some cases, "costumed adventurer" or "superhuman adventurer"—as a synonym for "super-hero."

Outdoors

Adventure books may have the theme of the hero or main character going to face the wilderness or Mother Nature. Examples include books such as ''Hatchet (book), Hatchet'' or ''My Side of the Mountain''. These books are less about "questing", such as in mythology or other adventure novels, but more about Survival skills, surviving on their own, living off the land, gaining new experiences, and becoming closer to the natural world.

Questing

Many adventures are based on the idea of a quest: the hero goes off in pursuit of a reward, whether it be a skill, prize, treasure, or perhaps the safety of a person. On the way, the hero must overcome various obstacles to obtain their reward.

Video games

In video game culture, an adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and Puzzle, puzzle solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media, literature and film, encompassing a wide variety of literary genres. Many adventure games (List of text-based computer games, text and List of graphic adventure games, graphic) are designed for a single player, since this emphasis on story and character makes multi-player design difficult.

Nonfiction works

From ancient times, travelers and explorers have written about their adventures. Journals which became best-sellers in their day were written, such as Marco Polo's journal ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' or Mark Twain's ''Roughing It''. Others were personal journals, only later published, such as the journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark or Captain James Cook's journals. There are also books written by those not directly a part of the adventure in question, such as ''The Right Stuff (book), The Right Stuff'' by Tom Wolfe or books written by those participating in the adventure but in a format other than that of a journal, such as ''Conquistadors of the Useless'' by Lionel Terray. Documentaries often use the theme of adventure as well.

Adventure sports

There are many sports classified as adventure sports, due to their inherent danger and excitement. Some of these include

, or other extreme sports.

References

External links

Website of the Research Unit "Philology of Adventure"
ongoing research project on the literary history of the adventure * voy:Main Page, Wikivoyage {{Authority control Adventure,