Rakusia -
I concur to a point. I think it's awesome when a player takes the time to craft a PC persona and then go about crafting the legend around his/her life. The problem I find is once a player finds a +1 sword, instead of naming it and crafting a legend, he/she starts looking for the next big thing, i.e. the +2 sword.
I'm not sure why but it seems that players are less interested in creating something with a DM, than being spoon fed something they can regurgitate back at a later date. The last time I played a character of any note was back in 1e in 1986-1988. I've DM'ed pretty much ever since, but I can still tell you stories about that character, his intricacies, special gear and companions because they were dear to me. The whole idea of "cookie cutter" fighters and rogues because their stats were the same is just alien to me. But then, I guess that's why I DM.