10. Full Motion Video Cutscenes (FMV) Are Not Rewards Anymore
Yes, I said it. What was introduced in Final Fantasy VII as a reward for reaching a certain part in the story, and was later adopted by games for various reasons (beating a certain tough opponent, or acquiring a certain great item for example) has been so overused that it hampers pace and gameplay more often than not. It's no secret that games can now be considered powerful storytelling devices, and to this, FMV's have contributed a lot. I can't think of a game with a cinematic premise that doesn't heavily feature cutscenes; and just so it can showcase the gorgeous cutscenes, or advance the good story, the gameplay suffers. Be it by being short, being easy, being shallow... "The player has to reach point X where cutscene Y will commence, so let's make it easy for them, because our story is so great and needs to be told!", in short. FMV's stopped being rewards quickly, and are even deceiving (see: every game that shows an absolute badass character that can't perform half the actions in gameplay that were in the cutscenes).
Example: A host of games from the Playstation One era