I think males are seen by people as epic and heroic, I'd prefer to play a male character over a female character, simply because I don't female characters that exciting and inspiring to great deeds. I see them as feminine.
see that's the kind of thinking society promotes and is part of the problem. Now that you recognize that you perceive things that way, it's up to you to correct that wrong-headed thinking in yourself. That's part of it all, correcting the stereotypes and biases we have within ourselves, because no one is ever going to be perfect in how they perceive others.
Also, you can be feminine and epic and heroic. This negative connotation attached to being feminine is another part of the problem. Men and women both perceive it many times as weak and inferior. That's why calling someone a pussy or saying they have a mangina (you are a sexist if you use that term, just to be clear) has the connotations that it does. Because being feminine is weak and bad.
You guys might ignore what developer is making the game, and I would argue that just putting the gender of the developer as a blurb, while it would prove my point, is gimmicky and wouldn't be the best way to go about it, but there are plenty of male gamers more involved in the process that would be hypercritical of female developers, and that, if they made a strong female character would label them as having "an agenda"
We see this in comic books with the writer for Ms. Marvel (I think she stepped down recently, and is releasing an awesome new series called Bitch Planet.)
When I talk about people being part of the problem, the issue isn't that men that don't feel this way need to start fights with men that do, but you just need to be a voice of opposition to that. You don't have to be antagonistic. I don't think that would necessarily help.