Serious Games, along with the various definitions they entangled and the multifaceted approaches they benefitted from in relation to their applicability, are and still gain ground in becoming a resourceful educational material provided they are used as a means to an end, the educational objectives per se. What research still has to cover is a rethinking of all the elements in terms of educational effectiveness, given this landmark has got new dimensions with the 21st century. While The European Union 2020 Strategy document \\\\\\\"New Skills for New Jobs\\\\\\\" recognizes the need to equip learners across Europe with skills and competences required by the workforce, Serious games offer new ways of learning which are highly consistent with these competence-based approaches to learning, reflected in modern theories of effective learning. Serious games have the potential to support the acquisition of all of these competences. Subsequently, in deploying Serious Games on the realm of education and training, special tools will be claimed as mandatory in order to both know what game to use, when and where, for what reasons, but also how to measure the gain at the end of a training sequence. This paper documents new perspectives on Evaluation metrics and taxonomy in Serious Games , with metrics to look at educational effectiveness of a game from all perspectives embedded, at usability characteristics and their importance, while our view on taxonomy aims at rendering a useful tool for different types of users, goals, learning outcomes, contexts, a tool that enhances a better uptake of games into education once different perspectives and various information is available. The new three-dimensional taxonomy for Serious Games along with an ongoing vision into building metrics for SG educational effectiveness are the result of the first year of work in GaLA (Game and Learning Alliance) NoE (Network of Excellence) financed under the 7FP; Such tools for a multi-faceted end-user from educator to student and labour market stakeholder, from corporate to industria will eventually contribute to a standardized vision over what educational effectiveness represents in the context of Serious Games.

Key words: serious games, metrics, taxonomy, educational effectiveness