Realistically, yeah. You also have to keep in mind, that you don't need to spend a lot.
You can go out and maybe spend less going to a sports authority or modells for some volleyball pads.
You'll never know what happens when you play paintball, especially if it is your first time.
But if you think for a moment that, there is never a time where you need to take a knee.
Especially if you are playing outside, where you can kneel down onto anything then you would be madly mistaken. You need to protect those areas, as they are extremely important. You can easily injur a kneecap or elbow from trauma by landing on them improperly.
I have played paintball in the woods, and actual speedball tournaments on a regional and national level (AXBL, NPPL, etc). The best advice any player can give you in regards to safety are a mask and pads. But you don't need to take my word on it, you can try and play without it. In my more wreckless times, I have previously and injured my elbow from tripping and falling incorrectly due to equipment. Needless to say, I ended up falling onto my elbow, lacerating a muscle and having water in the elbow, which put me out of paintball and any other sports for a few months. Landing on a knee improperly which put me in pain for a week or so, and many tylenols and advils later I came to the realization that pads were very important.
Getting shot on your hands are also not a pretty site. I've seen people get their thumbnails almost shot off as well, where the paintball can clearly hit your nail directly and upon breakage sends little shards of paintball casing under your nail.
Now those don't happen very often, but it does happen.
So why would you want to take a chance?
Some kind of protection is better than nothing. So I'm not telling you to go and get the most expensive thing out there... Get something that will protect it...period.
