TED Talks Daily - The power of gaming together in a lonely world | Laura Miele

Episode Date: August 15, 2026

Can gaming with friends help combat loneliness? Laura Miele, the president of EA Entertainment & Technology, dives into how video games unite millions worldwide in a vibrant network of social hubs. With personal stories, research and a glimpse into the future of AI in gaming, she shows why playing together isn't just fun — it’s vital for human connection.(This episode originally aired in 2025.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Hew. 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 and technology at the video game company Electronic Arts believes that nurturing human connection and 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, Manus Shomerode. That's all coming up after a short break. And now our TED Talk of the day. 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 awards 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. In gaming is the perfect medium to connect us. AI and games have been synonymous with each other from the beginning. Remember those little ghosts? and 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. and people are creating together, sharing, expressing themselves, collaborating. This is what gaming can do. Games have always 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 in 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 post. 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% of the respondents said they play games to not feel alone or not feel alone, are isolated. And I get it. I play games to not feel alone. In some of the happiest moments of my life, I was in isolation. About 20 years ago, my husband and I welcomed twins. We were so excited and so happy about this, but we were homebound for the first time in our lives. We quickly realized that the best way for social connection with our friends and family, and dare I say even each other,

through gaming. We quickly joined a family guild, and we played World of Warcraft for the first several years of our kids' lives. Now, I love most games, and I do. I love to play games. But nothing beats playing together. And people who play games together play for longer. Studies also show that people who play games and collaborate in games are actually more collaborative and more cooperative outside of games. That's pretty remarkable.

Now, when I first started in the industry, I started a company called Westwood Studios. And I was responsible for our online community. And we had, this is back in 1996, we had, wait for it, won million players in our community, which was huge back then. It was huge. I thought we were really hot stuff.

Fast forward to today, we have 700 million players in the network at EA. That's more than double the population of the U.S. Incredible, incredible number. But the magic number isn't actually 700 million. The magic comes when you play with three to five other people. And we call this your atomic network. And it's no accident that the atomic number is actually three to five.

There's a really interesting study that Colorado State University did with 6,000 respondents about loneliness. And what we know is that people on average, for history and now, today, people on average have about four to five friends, always. But today, the difference is people feel far less connected than they ever have. And they're longing for connection

and to do things together. Now, another dimension of gaming that I love is that you can get to know each other, playing games. Your personality and your skills are on full display when you play a game. Now, let's face it, most of us are not going to make it as a Navy SEAL in the real world,

but that's why games are so much fun. You can role-play this, right? So imagine, if you will, your squad is dropped into a remote location, you're fighting for survival, you're strategizing on the fly. all while the clock ticks away. Another good use of gaming could be compatibility test. Now, would I have married my husband

if he wasn't such an upstanding guild member of World of Warcraft? We'll never know. Now, you may be in an atomic network now, or you may be looking for one. There are billions of gamers out there playing games. You can join Fortnite, Minecraft, the Sims, FC, the list is long. And sure, you might get chirped in the chat, but you also might meet the love of your life.

So many people are ready to play. They're ready to enter epic worlds, epic adventures, meet amazing people. I really believe that games are the superior social platform of the future. They're immersive, active, engaging and overwhelmingly fun. So yes, social media, technology, particularly AI, are going to drastically change our future. and particularly the relationships that we have with each other.

So being intentional and maintaining human connection through games is an amazing path through. So this is a call to arms. Stop scrolling, pick up your game controller, jump into an epic world, live an amazing story, and go on an exciting adventure with three to five of your closest friends. It could just unite us all.

Thank you. Question. Talk to me about the hardware. Where do you see that progressing? I mean, we see people putting things on their heads. Are they going to be put, I don't know, chips, brains, what's going to talk us through what you say? Chips and brains, toasters, refrigerators, you can game everywhere.

I think that gaming, I mean, there's already a broad spectrum of accessibility to game and interactive experiences today, and that's only going to expand significantly as time goes on. And what I love about gaming is how vast that spectrum actually is. And I think the future will still, you can still pick up your mobile device, play word puzzles with friends to fast forward, put on to your point goggles, glasses. You will feel like you are actually in that landscape and in those worlds.

It would be super immersive and super connected, which I think is only going to continue to help us feel like we can connect on a human level. So I'm really excited and optimistic about it. Wow. Okay, looking forward to that. Laura Mayla, thank you so much. Thanks, Beno. This is great. hugs.

Thanks. That was great. was Laura Mila at TED Next 2024. This talk was originally published in April 2025. If you're curious about Ted's curation, visit ted.com slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today. Ted Talks Daily is a podcast from TED. This episode was fact-checked by the TED Research Team and produced and edited by our team,

Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Lucy Little, Emma Tobner, and Tonzica, Sungmar Nivong. Additional support from Daniela Baller, Reza, Christopher Faisie Bogan, Valentina Bohanini, Ban Ban Chang, Brian Green, and Lainey Lott. Learn more at podcasts.com. I am Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feet. Thanks for listening.