For some reason, every time I press the action key, nothing happens. Even when the item is highlighted and I can see the name of the thing I want to pick up. It has only worked maybe once or twice. I have no idea why this is. Can anyone help?

The way Gothic 1 works is, you have to hold down the interact key and press the forward key to interact with things (and back to cancel). The system is more intuitive in combat because directional keys have different effects. Gothic 2 lets you interact immediately just by pressing the interact key, though. It is an odd system, and it takes getting used to but I hope you'll find the games worth it. :-)

Yeah, I thought about doing that very thing. Turns out that's what you have to do. It was frustrating me to no end, and I figured it out after asking about it. Made it to the Old Camp and am now hopefully on my way to greatness. Problem solved, by the way.

I say this to practically everyone new to Gothic I: if you have a gaming keyboard, program it to make the two keystrokes into a single one - so much better!