User blog comment:The Milkman/To Build a Guild/@comment-3202167-20120904070115/@comment-3492791-20120905234724

It was actually pretty well balanced the way I remember it. First you even had to GET to the Arcane University. Then you already had to have any spells (or enchantments) you wanted to make. Then you had to pay a crap and a half to make it. And even then still, you couldn't even cast the spell if you weren't a high enough level. And some those crazy spells cost so much Magicka you'd need The Eye of Magnus to cast them.

Since I wan't even a mage in Oblivion (born under the Thief!) I only used it to make funny spells like my 1 fire damage in 100 feet explosion spell. It cost nearly all my magicka to cast, and couldn't kill anyone. But it was sure funny when it shot dead bodies into outerspace, pissed off everyone in the entire cell, and looked cool shooting it as something distant and seeing the massive flare.

In accordance with the mandatory law that I digress at the end of my post, I just remembered in Oblivion you had to go to the Arcane University to decode the commentatires for the main quest, and in Skyrim you had to go to the College of Winterhold to find the Elder Scroll for the main quest. Why you have to go to the mage guild to do the main quest?