Character backstory - Better Source DM or player?

[Batcathat]

I'm sure it has its advantages, but the meatgrinder intro was initially presented (in part) as giving the party a reason to adventure together and I still haven't seen any reason why it'd help with that more than any other intro.

To clarify, this method still needs a reason for the characters to get together ("you're guardsmen on assignment together", in this case) and that could be followed by any sort of intro adventure, not just the meatgrinder version.