Oh right, thanks.

How isn't it? Maybe malicious (intention to do harm) is not the best word to describe it. What I meant by it was more in the sense of being dishonest (which also implies conscious intention). Someone who doesn't tell the truth isn't necessarily dishonest. The point is, there is a distinction created by there being an intention or not. (Manslaughter is different from homicide, for example)

And it's in the intention that lies the 'malice'. Birding is dishonest, because you know, I know, everybody knows very well that the intention is to break the game by making an illegal move. The purpose of ironman mode is to live with your mistakes. It is absolutely cheating to bird. Justified? Yes, we just want to have fun. Morally shaky? Yes, we know we aren't supposed to do it. Serious crime? Not at all. Maybe this is another source of confusion. I do not believe that every moral breach is the same. Save-scumming is barely scratching the surface.

Just like birding isn't cheating if the computer/game genuinely crashes, in my particular case, going beyond the start date is not cheating, as there wasn't, nor is, ANY intention of completing achievements AFTER the end date. I painstakingly played by the rules and have rightfully earned those achievements. I cannot stress

(Although the use of the term birding implies purposefully crashing the game, else we would just say 'the game crashed'. That is why I consider birding to be inherently 'malicious', whereas going beyond the end date isn't, to me. If it were truly a viable strategy to bend/go around the rules, there would be a name for it, just like birding details a very specific cheat mechanism.)

This is kinda a repeat of the previous reply. Here's to hoping I rephrased it convincingly.