OBLIVION Persuasion Minigame hurts my brain

I finished all the XBOX 360 titles that I've picked up so far (and by finished, I mean played until they got too difficult or boring... yes, I'm talking to you Ridge Racer!), so I picked up the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The game is amazing, as the whole web-o-sphere is saying. Huge world, great graphics, lots of things to do. But I was chit chatting with an NPC in the game and saw that I had an option to "persuade." To what ends I would be persuading someone, I didn't have a clue, but what the hell, why not? So when I select "persuade" it starts this minigame involving a rotating pie chart. After three small screens of instruction, I have to start turning the pie chart and selecting things to do:flatter, boast, etc. Long story short, it was the most frustrating thing I've ever done in a video game (you can't stop once you've started so I just started mashing buttons till the "end" option became available) AND I had no idea why the fuck I was doing it or what benefit would be. So I did it again, this time reading every page of the directions which, for someone who's been playing games as long as I have, is a real chore. So I start again and...same frustrating shit. During this, there is an option to bribe so I'm like "Fuck it. I'm not above throwing money at a problem." and proceed to waste a ton of cash on persuading this office clerk to do something. Once I've finished the persuasion minigame, still confused by what the hell just happened, I talk to her again to see what the result of my hard work has been. Turns out, the bitch wants me to by a shitty apartment for 2000 Gold! Are you kidding me? I spent everything except my mead money on bribing you, and you repay me by selling me something? Brilliant.

When I get home from work, I'm going to go back to that office and try to persuade her with a worn leather boot up the bum.