kaatunut and Tentacle Penis neglect to mention how this can also be a good thing. Take the example of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete for Playstation. When the player talks to his friend before entering the final fortress, he is told a special key combination to activate a hidden game in the "making of" disc -- a clearly intentional example of IC actions leading to OOC benefits. This is a fairly common thing; another example that comes to mind is Kirby's Dream Land for GameBoy. Upon completing the game, the player is told a key combination to activate a harder mode of the game. In my opinion (note that I don't use stupid acronyms), this is a pretty nifty thing: receiving actual information in exchange for simulated actions.
Of course, nothing that has been mentioned on this node actually interferes with the player's ability to interface with a game, you whining crybabies ("Oh no! I have to actually play a game!"). Take the case of Final Fantasy Tactics for Playstation, in which every move takes up precicely one turn of game time (IC) but while a simple movement or physical attack is over in as much time as it takes to enter the command, a Calculator being Mimicked can take minutes (OOC) just to be displayed. This is an atrocity. It slaughters your precious recreational time by forcing you to stand helplessly by while the same cutesy little graphic sequence is displayed over and over again. And they get away with it more and more in each new game, turning once-intelligent players into mindless viewers. Games like NetHack are a blessing by comparison.