Both are direct instructions to take the coins.

No, "coins are good" doesn't mean "you must collect all coins." Coins are good in Mario too, but they're not mandatory.

"Take them" is still a direct instruction to take the coins. I wasn't confused.

"Take them" !== "Collect all of the coins to pass the level"

As stated, coins are often optional in other platformers.

I find it amusing how I can tell what programming language you write based off of your "not equal too" syntax for me it's "!="

Heh, good ol' JavaScript!

It's weird though, because I mostly write CoffeeScript instead of JavaScript, which uses "!=" and desugars to "!==".

What's wrong with isnt?

Nothing, I just recognize "foo != bar" as a conditional better than "foo isnt bar".

I was going to cry "sytax error" for a moment until I remembered javascript :D

But one of them doesn't say it's required. I can finish a level in Sonic without collecting all the rings, even though rings are a good thing.

The "coins are good" part doesn't imply that it's required, but the "take them" part does.

not to the rest of us.

I don't understand how it could be interpreted as anything other than a direct imperative.

"Take them" implies that they are important, but does not definitively state that they are required. It's like saying in Legend of Zelda "Triforce pieces are good. Take them." It's massively understating the importance of the Triforce, since you can't beat the game without all the pieces.

Let's just leave it at "some people were confused". Because honestly, in terms of user experience, that's all that matters.

How would you interpret: "Lunch is good, take a lunch break," vs. "Take a lunch break or you will be fired."

"Eating is good, grab an apple" doesn't imply "eat something or eventually you will die."

Simply add "all" and it will be fine:

"Coins are good, take them all"

it's to avoid people having to go back in the level to get coins they thought were 'good' but optional.

There's a certain joy in the reward of having taken the coins before you knew for sure you needed to that would be lost.

I bet it's not as strong as the annoyance of missing them and then realizing at the end that you need them.