The power of gaming together in a lonely world | Laura Miele

**Elise Hu** (0:00)
I've been thinking a lot about what makes a good life, and when I dig into this question, it really comes down to the people around us, neighbors, teammates, the friends and family we share a meal, a game, or a group chat with. It turns out our health and happiness may depend on them so much more than we realize. So for August's TED Talks Daily playlist, we've gathered five of our favorite talks on finding our people, our community, whether it's at a dinner table, in a video game, or in a garden growing in the middle of the city. Happy listening.
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. If you have kids or teenagers in your life, chances are you know about their favorite video games. Gaming is huge among Gen Z, and it's all about strategy, but also about the community built with other gamers. Laura Miele, president of Entertainment & Technology at the video game company Electronic Arts, believes that nurturing human connection in digital spaces is now more important than ever. In her 2024 talk, she shares why this is an exciting moment for humanity, and why the video game industry is perfectly poised to lead the effort towards building deeper connections. And stick around after the talk for a brief Q&A between Laura and the host of TED Radio Hour, Manoush Zomorodi. That's all coming up after a short break.
And now our TED Talk of the day.

**Laura Miele** (1:40)
I am so excited to be here to talk about gaming. There has been so many changes in this industry since I first started at Electronic Arts almost 30 years ago. Graphic fidelity is one of the most visible revolutions in games. But there have been so many others. Games have become social connection hubs, and games are now synonymous with pop culture. I mean, take Star Wars as an example. They've completely evolved their narrative universe based on over 10 games.
TV adaptations like The Last of Us are winning Emmys for HBO. And our own award show, The Game Awards, had over 120 million viewers last year. Now, for some context, if you take the Grammys, the Oscars and the Emmys, times three, it doesn't add up to how many viewers we had in The Game Awards. That's incredible.
Thank you. Yes, good for gaming. And this is good news for gaming. But I'm here to tell you, I think it's even better news for humanity. In a world where there's artificial intelligence, artificial interactions, having human connection is going to be more important than ever. And gaming is the perfect medium to connect us.
AI and games have been synonymous with each other from the beginning. Remember those little ghosts in Pac-Man? Little pixelated opponents in Madden? Those may not seem very intelligent today, but that was our start. And today, AI, particularly generative AI, is going to be an exponential accelerator for making games, for how players interact with games and how they personalize and create their own experiences.
But AI is not the only thing driving change in the gaming industry and in society in general. Social media has transformed our lives. I mean, think about it. Hundreds of millions of interactions and transactions daily, millions of followers, social platforms. You would think we are more connected than we've ever been, but that's not the case. I mean, left to our own devices? Well, we have been left to our own devices. There's emerging evidence to say that there's a trend happening that the surgeon general is calling an epidemic of loneliness. The data says that people are having a hard time making and keeping friends more than ever. I mean, this is scary stuff.
We all know that having belonging to a community and having a sense of belonging to each other is critical to our mental well-being. But don't worry, I'm here to tell you that games are going to save us. Games bring people together. That's what I love about them. They're creative, they're fun. People are creating together, sharing, expressing themselves, collaborating. This is what gaming can do. Games have always have been my choice of media. Now, I love a great movie and reality TV as much as the next person, but nothing lights up your brain like a great game and interactive entertainment. I mean, even the World Health Organization, after years of skepticism about gaming, has come out to espouse the benefits of gaming. This was a massive turning point in public perception. It also spawned a lot of research around the benefits of gaming, including the power of play in 2023, where they surveyed 13,000 respondents in 12 countries to validate what many of us know, that gaming helps with critical skills, critical thinking, judgment, collaboration. But what I found most interesting was that 55 percent of the respondents said they play games to not feel alone or isolated.