https://www.milesfs.com/obituary/keith-watt

Our good friend, Keith "X-Man" Watt has passed away. We became friends when I first started posting on the original TMA back in February 2000...back when we were 14 and 15. I'll always fondly remember when he would comically overreact to the question of: "What is the air/speed velocity of an unladen swallow?" during the Ask AntiMatt / Ask TMA days...or when he labeled another TMA'er as an "eager to please whore" (I forget what it was in response to...but I remember it being fucking funny.)

Outside of TMA, we were friends on Facebook and played some Team Fortress Classic together on Steam during the mid to late 2000's before we kind of lost contact. I googled him tonight after noticing he hadn't logged onto Steam in forever...and I find out this terrible news. It was like a part of my childhood died...absolutely terrible.

RIP Keith "X-Man" Watt. You will be missed.



Edit: This was his profile pic on TMA for a LONG time...glad I could find it on Google.

Near the end of high school, I went through a fucking terrible breakup. It put me in a deep depression and I posted some of my sob story on old TMA to vent. I forgot the exact wording but it got misconstrued as I was going to hurt myself. The first person that checked on me was X-Man via AIM who was probably the most serious he has ever been up to that point. I'll never forget what a kind dude he was -- and I deeply regret not keeping in touch with him as much as I could have.

I really feel bad for his parents, too...he was their only child and they have outlived him. As a parent, I just really feel for them right now as well. This just sucks. I'll scroll through the archives on my next day off, grab a six pack and go back to the 2000/2001 era where it was pure anarchy. I still can't believe this, though...'middle age' should not be 19 years old.

MASF wrote on 03/16/23 at 13:50:50:


Welcome. That's a classy way to make an entrance. Don't worry so much about your age, you still have about 5 years before your body falls apart. Try and stay healthy and keep out of trouble; what else can ya do? Life is short for most, for some too long.

Back around the year 2000 X-Man was one of my friends on TMA. There was a guy you could rely on to make a good TMA post. Like me he was made an official member of the website in the year 2000 when TMA transitioned from subdomain of the nerdy "Twisted Metal World" to its own independent cooler entity. Originally TMA was a page of editorials related to Twisted Metal with a guestbook and a petition seeking to get TM back in the hands of Singletrac. Content and forums were added, the site got a new URL and banner and some site contributors became members and people later donated to the cause as well. Members of Sony (Jaffe, Ceragioli) and Incognito (Baum) would visit the walls and talk to us young fans of then. There was a Chat section. The boards (called walls) were unique and some not Twisted Metal related.
Back in 2000 prior to Twisted Metal Black's release later in 2001 the site was kind of a comedy spot for young people like X-Man, EvilEd, myself as Homer Simpson/Mosh, Dim Shades/Tom Sholz, Abe Simpson, Kaffeine, Antimatt, Codematt, Joymann, Trunks, and others. It was when the site got the TMAlliance.com URL that the old content was made a subdomain of its own (archive.TMalliance.com).
A lot of that content was seemingly retained by Archive.org as you can view in a link like this - https://web.archive.org/web/20020705110158/http://archive.tmalliance.com/pointof...
If you go through that link you will find some of X-Man's posts back then; he was a funny dude.
Some of the old content-filled TMAlliance.com still exists too but there are many dead links and a lot of the messages in the forums are sadly not visible. This is a glimpse of the official TMalliance.com member list in 2001 back when Mortimer decided to make the site more exclusive after the site got plugged in the Official Playstation Magazine preview of Twisted Metal Black, https://web.archive.org/web/20020806170438/http://tmalliance.com/tma/members.sht... so a lot of good original members got demoted (although a few retained membership later on). 
X-MAN and I joined ENOS, Nightshade, EvilED,
-Scold- as Mortimer's chosen site contributors/members in 2001 and then the member list grew with people like Monkey King (RIP), Wolfenhex, Psycho Se7en, Hellbent, V-Wing, the deplorable but generous with donations Bjyman, Mapster, Venom, Joe Twisted... There were many great posters contributing like Xizor, Thumpy, Kilrahi, Kilrgrn, Methid Man, Darkforce, Roadie, Rabid, Aced, Mikey, Adonael...
https://web.archive.org/web/20060430072529/http://www.tmalliance.com/members/ind...
The site's content was dropped around 2007 and transitioned into this simple message board which retained the TMA banners/logos and the forum names like Totally Twisted and Brawl on the Wall. The board became inactive years ago with the final active generation bringing in members who migrated to the TMA Discord in support of the TM Black Online Revival Server and other competitive Twisted Metal scenes. And there was an official TMA Youtube Channel promoting the 2012 game, but all for seemingly nothing as the series became dormant regardless of (some) fan support for the PS3 game.
TMA's modern community mostly evolved out of the competitive TMA scene, those who play one of the multiple online titles,

...but X-Man was more than a TM2 PC player.
In a sea of players who just want to be the best it's nice to have an X-Man around to remind you that games are meant to bring people together to have fun. At least that's how it was before the industry and culture changed over the last two decades.
X-Man was most notably one of the early TMA Commissioners and one of the early TMA Professors ("Ask TMA"). I was a Professor too but X-Man was the best professor of all of us. He carried that role so well most who lived through that era only remember him in the Professor role. Often times us other professors were the ones asking him the questions.
But he contributed in many other ways; writing Twisted Metal reviews, participating in Point of View/Totally Twisted topics, doing the surveys, taking part in the comedy, and earning everybody's respect, from West coast to East coast to New Zealand to Uranus.
He wore the face of the alien dude from Rogue Trip Vacation 2012 better than anybody, and wore the name of that weirdo X-Man from X-Men just as good.
So 10/10 is the score I give to X-Man's TMA Career. X-MAN is an official TMA HALL OF FAMER without a doubt.
Sadly, I knew very little about the dude after his time in TMA. He was an absolute; The type of character you don't have to ask "who are you?" to, because you trusted that they were a good soul not looking to do anyone harm, so you didn't even think to ask.
I lost another friend not long ago after hearing of X-Man, and when I was at that funeral I gave X-Man a thought and actually did wonder who he was.
It sometimes feels like a person you once knew will just live on forever somewhere in the far distance, happy in life, when they may in fact already be gone, and then you start thinking about your own mortality, and how fast it all goes.
Anyway, when I heard the news I made the following TMA videos to cope with losing a funny TMA bro from childhood.
You may not really know a person, but you can still see them as family.

RIP X-Man

MASF wrote on 03/17/23 at 16:49:27:


Well, I wish Mr. Jaffe and his family well through these difficult times.
And that war is over.
If he has feelings of hatred for TMA he should let it go, although I genuinely don't believe it's real hate we are talking about.
But there are consequences to a series derailing.
And to contrast, Jim Buck who worked on Twisted Metal 3/4 posted at TMAlliance in the early days as well back when all the TMA members were bashing those games. He was able to chat and be civil with us despite the criticisms thrown at those titles. Some people are better at dealing with negative feedback than others.
But X-Man really had absolutely nothing to do with either the fallout of TMA or the beef between Jaffe and TMA though. Like I said he was part of that original generation, and we were just kids then and big dreamers. Twisted Metal fandom in the 2020s is a very different scene. Nobody is coming to the ancient TMA temple except maybe one of the old TMA Disciples to take a glance and maybe a new poster like yourself. They go to popular social media for Twisted Metal talk and content or to schedule games of one of the past titles.