I instantly bought Tropico 4 when it's released on GOG . Because I already have it on Steam but I want it as DRM-free . Didn't download after bought . But few days ago I saw this thread

http://www.gog.com/forum/tropico_series/tropico_4_online_ui

We know already social integration functions are disabled on this build . But why those buttons are still there :S why they didn't remove them properly ? It seems as a cheap work for me :S Please fix that .

The developer would have to go in and change the game to remove the UI features for online connectivity, GoG can't really do anything about it. I am guessing that it was easier and quicker (thus, cheaper) for the developer to just push a quick config change for the GoG release rather than re-coding the menus.

Plus you would never know, what will break ingame.

If you for example, just block access to the network, is much easier than anything else (you could even do it by just pointing to the local loopback, kind of 5 minutes work)

I know we would all like it if the developer had built a DRM-free copy of the game, but alas, most developers see DRM-free more as an after market.
So you will have to put up with the extra buttons, knowing that they have removed the DRM.

Anyway you never know - I make no promises.
As GOG want to be like Steam, and they have been working on friends functions. Maybe the developers are just waiting for it to become stable and then they will patch the social functions back in. So the buttons could be functional somewhere in the future.

I got the Complete Edition of Tropico 4 on Steam (game and all DLCs) and there you could enable an option (ingame) which hides the social media buttons.
But I don't know if this was added with an DLC or if this option came with the base game.
Is this option not there on the GOG release?