New dashboard - games picked for you - additional logic required

Actaully hate to break it to you but that's not how ms promotions work . As per the conditions of the promotion you must purchase the promotion from the dashboard however it uses the generic payment method screen . This still requires you to purchase the
membership on the dashboard with a creditcard or debit adding a prepaid code invalidates the promotion

All promotions use the same screen but require you to purchase the discounted membership as you cannot be refunded to the membership code the discount this is logical.

And yes it's 6-8 weeks but as you didnt purchase the promotion you'd don't qualify

If the online requirement was only there to "improve game quality" then why was it required? There's no logic behind that argument. There's no point in making it required if that was their reason.

The real is answer, it was required because it was a form of DRM.

Game generally require space if you're installing them on the hard drive, game saves and updates. The 2.1GB could be the Xbox's way of telling you there won't be enough space for additional Xbox dashboard updates and title updates for the games. Try clearing
some of the add-ons that you don't use anymore or any installed games.

Some developers, such as EA, have started required an online pass to connect to their games in addition to the gold membership Xbox has. If you bought the game new, you should have a code in the box.

Are you talking about trying to RUN THE GAME or INSTALL THE GAME to the hard drive? Either way you might change the INSTANT ON to ENERGY SAVING, restart the console and then change it back once your problem is fixed. This is done in SETTINGS for the DASHBOARD.
Additional advice will require whether you're trying to RUN or INSTALL the game. These are 2 completely separate things.