There's simply no good solutions outside of simply not buying the game.
There's no system in place where a gamer can choose which 'party' he or she would prefer to give the money to. If I could, I'd pay DICE myself, giving the equivalent of the full price of the game to the whole team who made the head and handwork with a check for each one of them. But the current system asks me to give money to my retailer or the digital seller; after that then I don't know what happens to it. I'm the kind of guy who works, appreciates work, and especially work well done. When someone offers a service, does his/her job, they get paid. They need to eat, and pay their bills, have a roof on their head; that's how life works. The Battlefront II I see, hear and play happens to be a Star Wars game that visually accurately depicts its universe just as well and perhaps better than the 2015's attempt. It's work well done, a team of human beings with real life needs worked on it. I don't want THEM to have issues now or in the future; they are a very capable game development studio, but they're working for the bad guys; it doesn't mean that they ALL should be considered part of them problem, themselves.
The original game lacked too much content to excuse the price they asked for it. At the time, my Star Wars "fanboyism" didn't get the best of me; I passed and moved on. A few months ago they announced the features for BF2, that it'd have a campaign, how "double" of this and "double" of that it'd have over the original one's content. And about how every single post-launch DLCs / extra content releases would be free. That stuff I asked for, wished for in their 2015 BF. Almost everyone at the time also did. You guys wanted a campaign? Well, here's one! You guys wanted more maps? Well, here's pretty much double the count. Oh, you guys also wanted even MORE content? Well, here's the THREE eras. It kept going on. At that point, and before the Beta came out, before everyone "realized" what was going on; what was then the apparent 'trade-off' for having free DLCs, I had already made my mind. That I would "thank" DICE for listening to what 'we' wanted, even if they absolutely didn't * have * to do it especially considering that it was a series that from the start was conceived to be focused on multiplayer. I was, in fact, ready to buy BF2 without a campaign as long as the multiplayer content for it would be significantly increased over what 2015's BF had at release. But they went not only with a campaign, but an Arcade mode I can casually enjoy whenever I happen to have enough of online multiplayer.
As a consumer, I could only realize that "Wow... they actually did a good job this time around". I was simply satisfied.
I planned to buy it from the beginning before the whole microtransaction controversy / fiasco started. When I got to see the progression system first hand during the open Beta I simply realized that - yes, even though I "hated" the concept (still do), and its execution - it really did not influence my enjoyment of the actual gameplay itself. The gunplay, the mechanics, the controls, the physics, the match objectives. That everything was doable even if I was at an apparent 'disadvantage' versus those in the same match whom happened to have spent money or also happened to have simply played a lot more than me and just unlocked more and better stuff. And that I would - like most people - wait without haste, at my own pace to also progress by accumulating enough in-game credits to open the occasional loot box along with getting my daily login one, and the few others we can get from doing the campaign and finishing some other challenges in various modes. That, ultimately, I'd be happy with just playing it "like that", while ignoring the microtransactions.
The actual BF2 dev team, the guys who worked on it. The guys and gals who made the textures, animations, models, coding, A.I., scripts, campaign, motion capture, written the story, created the new canon characters, made the sound editing. All that stuff, and more; THOSE guys not only deserve to be paid for their work, but they need to. I want to support them. I ENJOY the gameplay of the game that they worked on. The progression system does NOT affect me as much as some people think it "should". It's incredible but yeah, there's tough-as-nails gamers around apparently. I can endure and I'm very casual with online games. Yeah, EA decided to include microtransactions and 'force' (persuade / incite) us to get those damn Cards and "progress" by purchasing Crystals with real money. That it would greatly accelerate the process. Mmmmk, what if I don't give a damn? Not only I simply don't care, I don't WANT to care about it. It's my personal way to 'fight' their decision. What if I just... oh, you know, enjoy the base "default" non-or-barely-progressed gameplay? I do have some cards anyway, it's not like all my Class, Troopers and Vehicles slots are always empty. I have my daily box and the ones I get with in-game credits. I got some Whites, Greens and a few Blues. It's enough for me as much as it was enough to get the equipment and various weapons mods in Mass Effect 3's multiplayer the 'free' way (never spent a single dime on that thing, and proud of it). The TIME it "would take" to get the best Cards, etc. Those estimations I saw around the web, yeah, it's ludicrous. But it is the case for those who WANT to achieve that, to get there. It's horrible for those whom are concerned about it, for those it affects. I do NOT actually want the best cards or even the Blue or the Green cards. I bet EA didn't plan for THAT crowd huh? I'll simply get the ones I get by chance whenever I play normally and open the boxes I get that way, and that's it.
To reiterate, the ONLY thing I can do as an honest buyer and a guy who believes in being freakin' paid for work, and work well done on top of that is to buy the game. I did not want to wait for a sale because I believe that DICE, not EA deserve the full price because what they have done on a technical level of game production is very good for my personal tastes and expectations of the visions of a modern take on the Star Wars eras put in a first-person-shooter genre. As the video game that it is, I simply enjoy it. Excuse me for buying a game I liked during the Beta and not pirating it or going on the "cheap" side and waiting for it to be $10 in two months from now. I know my money didn't go to DICE, it went to EA. But not buying it period, or buying it during sales would have felt wrong to me. There is no system in place currently for gamers to decide which "side" they'd want to support separately. So I simply did what I thought and felt was right to do. The money goes to EA, it's the 'necessary evil' part, I suppose. But my act of buying the game and ignoring the microtransactions was my own way to 'vote' for DICE.
If you guys, anyone here, have a solution to propose for people like me who only want to support the dev team of any particular game while not supporting publishers whenever shit like that hits the fan then let me know. For now, all I can do is buying it to support DICE even if it's done indirectly and sends a wrong message to EA. My intention is one of honesty towards DICE and appreciation of their job well done (that part is of course subjective; if you actually do dislike BF2's * everything * on a technical level then heh, for YOU of course DICE didn't do a good job anyway; but that's an opinion). They made a good Star Wars game, I liked it; I paid for it. Now I get to play it the way I want to while showing the finger to the microtransactions even if EA did get my money and laugh about it on their way to the bank. I didn't get "bent over" by EA, I didn't buy Crystals with real money. I do understand that the purchase says (to EA) "I bought your game, keep doing that shit please.". That is the message that THEY understand out of it. But DO imagine one moment, in the best of worlds just for the sake of dreaming in colors here, if NO ONE - after buying the base game - would have bought a single Crystal with real money. Literally, no ONE person on Earth would have done it. Wouldn't that ALSO have sent them a message? We don't want that in our games? I'd of course LIKE it if they'd improve the progression system but - for me - it's not essential to the core game as surprising as it may seem. So ultimately MY message was "Sure, I'll buy the game because DICE worked well on it but don't count on me to support your progression system and overall shitty microtransaction methodology".
The one thing I hope for right now is for this mess to be fixed (permanently) for everyone.
The problem I see for DICE as a dev team, however, is that from now on REGARDLESS of what they'd do to not only really fix the progression system but to please as many gamers as possible by adding good content later on as well is that people won't actually recognize or admit their real attempt at "redeeming" themselves, and people will keep either pirating, trash talking, 'boycotting' or down voting it all the way until BF3 comes out and perhaps even then the haters will keep at it; even if at that point BF2 would have been really fixed for months prior. In other words, even if in one or two months from now they do come up with a good 'compromise' or replacement, the . damage is already done; beyond repair. And BF2, from now on, will always be remembered for the wrong reasons. And if people finally decide to "give it a chance" they'll wait for it to be $5 or something ridiculous like that. Already, right now, purchasing Crystals isn't possible anymore. They already made "a move", it's a step in the right direction. The community that cared about the situation 'rallied' and a move WAS made. But the hatred toward DICE and EA still continues anyway with the same intensity. Some people simply hate, at this point, for the sake of hating and being on the side of the 'movement'. A clear message was heard, apparently. And yeah, perhaps the pressure of the investigations in Europe about gambling 'persuaded' someone high in the EA / Disney ranks to move quickly. Maybe there's really NO goodwill behind the removal of the microtransactions and is only an attempt at hiding a true evil. But the fact is, that right now, the kind of move that people wanted to see being done HAS been done and cannot currently be denied. I understand the suspicion right now and the 'let's wait and see' for what they'll come up with next. But mark my words, the real haters WILL continue to hate anyway regardless of what they do even if it happens to be undeniably better.
Anyway I've made my case. I'll see in 10 years from now if I was right or not. If I was wrong then entire gaming industry should have been long doomed at that point so it should be clear enough.