There is like two different Gothic 3's, right? Or am I remembering that wrong? Or maybe one is just an add-on to the other? For some reason my memory insists there were actually two different Gothic 3's. But I can't really rely on my memory anymore. So I guess it's two questions.

Is there, in fact two Gothic 3's?

and, if so,

Which Gothic 3 Do You Play (prefer).

NM. I just saw that Gothic 3 Forsaken Gods is an add-on to Gothic 3. For some reason I was thinking they were actually two different games.

My bad.

I would still skip the Forsaken Gods Expansion. Not even made by JoWood. Poorly designed, very cringe dialogue & story and gameplay compared to G3.

Technically, G3: Forsaken Gods is a stand-alone expansion.
G3:FS doesn't require Gothic 3 (original game) to run the expansion.