I was an alpha and beta tester for what is now known as 1.0. As kira said, there were plenty of threads in the then alpha and beta forums about the games problems. We tried, but SE didn't listen.

Quote Originally Posted by KiraHime View Post
As someone who was a tester from day 1 of 1.0 Alpha, I can tell you this is most certainly not the case. We posted feedback on threads for each category gameplay, battle UI etc after each 4 hour block of play we got. And yes we posted, there were thousands of posts on each thread.

We all stated on the forums and to everyone who would listen the game was not ready for release an we assumed it was just a rush to get XIV launched before cataclysm.

In fact I still bring it up with a friend who was with me from day one how everyone in the 1.0 testing community was convinced there was another version of the game that would be released which we referred to as the 'Secret Gamescon Edition' (a XIV preview being shown at Gamescon just prior to launch), as none of us could believe that what we were playing would/could be released in the state it was in. (It was so prevalent I'm surprised it never made it to the FFXIV meme thread)

Mistakes were made, changes were made to fix it. Please don't blame a community who tried their best, especially when you have no knowledge of what they did or how they acted.